Lost in Infinity
by f136cloudstrife
Summary: Ranma - Naruto Crossover. A mystical accident causes Ranma to find himself displaced in the Naruto reality. How will this change affect him? More importantly, how will the chaos that follows Ranma affect Konoha?
1. Prologue Part 1

Lost in Infinity

A Ranma 1/2 - Naruto Crossover  
Prologue Part 1

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto, and Ranma belongs to Takahashi. So there.

Author's Notes: I originally started this story out because I really wanted to see how Ranma and the others would interact, if Ranma was in the Naruto universe. At the moment, however, I have only the begining and the end of this story, but not much of a middle. For the first few chapters it will be quite Ranma-centric, and slowly smoothen out to encompass all the characters. Still tweaking the storyline, so that's subject to change. Lastly, personally I found the story a little drab after I read it a few times. Please let me know if you feel the same, or if it's okay, cause if it is, I definitely need to work on this. Last note, updates may be slow, but I'll keep them consistently long. Thank you.

* * *

The dark hazy sky seemed to only hold the pale crescent moon, its cruel smile blurred by the myriad of clouds. The air was still, slightly misty, the ground laden with dew of the earliest morning. In a modern timescale, it was roughly three hours past the mid of night. The quiet that permeated the surroundings couldn't have been better, according to the lone figure treading through the forest. 

It moved, swiftly, gracefully. Past the trees, underbrush, and bushes. It kept moving, nary a sound save for the relative din of the air being displaced and the infrequent snapping of twigs here and there. Finally the forest blended into a clearing as the figure kept moving eastward.

Just as subtly as the trees gave way to tall grass, grass gave way to rocks, and soon the figure was seen hoping from flat plain to flat plain, scaling the mountain in its path like it was merely an ant hill. In no time, the figure reached the summit of the mountain, and stopped moving, as if it had been struck dead where it stood.

In lithe movements, the figure removed its face mask and head covering, showing that 'it' was a 'she', as waves of jet black hair crashed along her back. She then proceeded to loosen the strap on her pack, which was tightly packed and strapped to her back. The first item she retrieved was a ribbon of darkest blue which she then used to tie her hair into a loose ponytail.

Just beyond her reach from her position was a curious structure, that very much resembled a boulder. However, the only thing it had in common with a boulder would have been its appearance, as for all intents and purposes, it was an altar. Though long forgotten in an age of technology and civility, the altar had been in much use in its early days as a platform of preparation by those familiar with the arcane arts.

The girl, or young woman, as it seemed that she was just barely into her twenties, moved towards the altar, and placed her pack beside it on the ground. She then removed most of her belongings, as well a tome which glowed mysteriously. The tome was placed onto the altar, which also curiously glowed in tandem.

Cool as her countenance was to any external observer, her insides were a jumble of acids bubbling like an overactive volcano. She was nervous with anticipation, and the hand that drew the arrays of inscriptions on the ground shook slightly. She paused and drew a deep breath, and continued with her work.

In her mind, her thoughts continued to swirl violently as she worked, remembering, storing, and bringing to the fore memories of the past and plans for the future. This night would bring the culmination of close to a year's worth of careful planning. Her ambitions would be fulfilled. The Power that she sought would soon be hers.

As the soft breeze that had built up slowly blew, the pages of the glowing volume upon the altar stayed exactly as it had been left. She checked the book from time to time as she worked, maintaining silence and concentration, such that would not be expected from one so young. Ambition does that sometimes.

Ever since she was young, she had always been belittled, either for petty things like her size, or even her gender, and also sometimes for the social stigma attached with her position in society. A cruel society that cared not whether the poor child had food and a place to rest, but more of the status of her clan. At some point, she decided that she would become strong, and make them acknowledge her existence, not for her clan, but for herself. Then, she would make them pay.

It was this train of thought that had allowed her to keep alive to this point, and she knew it was nearly time. The arcane arrays were nearly complete, and with the power that would soon be hers, her goals would then be attainable.

Between the time she had begun till now, the clouds began to amass, eerily analogous of the glow of the of the tome that continued to grow, coming to a zenith as the final inscription was etched. Examining her handy-work, she stalked back to the altar. She looked up and stared at the sky, noticing the mass of blackness that was the heavens.

She raised an eyebrow, since the tome never mentioned such things. She turned back to the book, sending the thoughts of the weather to the back of her mind. It was a trivial matter after all.

'Time to start', she thought, and slowly, she turned the page of the book, from the instructions on preparations, to the page detailing the ritual itself, as well as the incantation required. She close her eyes, and started to intone the incantation.

The words in the tome themselves started to glow, as the book's glow was sucked in. Even the arrays on the ground started to glow with power, energizing the ground. The power inducted into the words she spoke filled the ambiance with a thick feeling. Slowly, the volume of her chanting started to rise, and the swirl of raw energy filling the air around here became tangible and visible to the naked eye.

The sky rumbled in acknowledgment, and lightning fell in the surroundings. She paid it no heed as she continued to chant. The swirl of power started rising towards the sky. All of a sudden, she felt a wet feeling on her nose. Then her forehead. Then her hands. It continued to spread. All the while, a sudden pitter-patter of droplets filled the air. The drops of rain drizzled at first, building in volume as she continued to chant.

Still, she pressed on, without any misgiving. By this time, the swirl of power was spinning violently in the space above her, confined within the width of the arrays she had prepared. The rain was steadily increasing, becoming a full-fledged storm unnaturally in a matter of minutes.

She could feel it. It was nearly complete. So close. So very close indeed.

It was at this time that a certain famous law decided to come into play in a way its namer would have been proud of.

A heavy, rolling thunder was heard. Of course, preceding the sonic boom was its cause, a bright flashing bolt of lightning. Its target seemingly predetermined by some higher power, it struck the altar, causing the altar itself to blast into pieces. It also had the side-effect of throwing the book several meters into the air, and hurling the girl so far back that she nearly fell off the cliff-side.

The heavy downpour continued falling and falling, scratching away at the ground. She opened her eyes, and felt the rain entering, causing her to shut her eyes and turn to the side. She steadied herself as she tried to rise, shaking the cobwebs from her head. It was then, that her senses picked up what her eyes would have.

The spinning blaze of energy started whirling wildly as it picked up in power. She felt a burst of uncontrolled energy, as the blaze peaked and went back to normal. It kept peaking randomly, each time brighter than the next, and she was very, very sure that this was not supposed to happen. Her cold, calm facade slipped as her eyes gazed upon the wet earth where the arrays were drawn.

The cluster of rocks that were once the altar had been thrown to the ground with so much force that some of the ground which had parts of the array on them had been nicked off. It was to her horror as tendrils of energy started to snake out of the swirling light, connecting with the array. The energy crackled insanely all around her.

Worse yet was the rain that still poured, as if it was threatening to flood the entire forest. Although she didn't realize it, the downpour was slowly corroding the inks of the array. With the rain, the rocks, and the backlashing energy finally wiping the array clean, the unstable spell construct began to collapse. Before her fearful eyes, the swirling energies imploded in a sharp burst.

It air suddenly felt stale, devoid of life as it was sucked in with that last burst. Her breathing was ragged, as she got to her feet, swaying slightly as she favored her uninjured left foot. All of a sudden, from the apex of the swirl that had imploded came one last, brilliant, bright, explosive flash. A great thunderous din echoed, shaking the very core of the mountain.

As her eyes perceived the flash of light and the corona spreading across the sky in every direction, she felt a pull in her chest. With a tight tug, she felt her soul rip from her body, leaving her mind behind. She limply dropped to the ground, her last thoughts echoing as her consciousness ebbed away.

'Why the fuck didn't I just do it indoors like every other sensible mage...?'

Although the spell failed in the end, the young woman would have no idea of the repercussions of pooling so much energy in one place. The spell was originally intended to draw as much dormant energy from other worlds, universes, and infuse it into the caster. Though the backlash was only physically visible on her world, but the magic itself was ancient, and it coursed through the multiverse, causing all manner of chaos.

The effect the spell had on the many worlds it swept across were myriad; in many worlds, strange phenomena affected weather and climates. In others, refined chaos, the essence of magic, was stained, causing countless deaths of those adept in the use of magic. In some, the effects were as trivial as a passing storm, or a light breeze that would cause you to get goose-bumps. Some worlds, however, experienced the displacement of people and property. People would disappear in one place, and reappear halfway across the world. Houses would suddenly materialize in a busy street.

In two distinctly different worlds, the distinct but similarly destined people would find their lives from then onwards derailed, forcing destiny and fate to rewrite themselves in order to keep up with the chaos in their lives.

* * *

Author's Notes: Well, thats the first prologue. Hope you liked it, if you didn't then please point out what it was that irked you, so that my writing can improve, as well as the storyline. Thanks again. ;) 


	2. Prologue Part 2

Lost in Infinity

A Ranma 1/2 - Naruto Crossover  
Prologue Part 2

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto, and Ranma belongs to Takahashi. So there.

Author's Notes: Nothing much to say here, since I posted the first four parts at the same time. Hope you like it.

* * *

The peaceful quiet of the morning held much the same, even though the sun was already three-quarters of the way in lighting up the sky. Osaka was pretty much always like this in the mornings; in southern Minami area, the bustling crowds wouldn't really start to form till some time around noon. Till then, things would move quite slowly, and this suited Saotome Ranma, martial arts prodigy extraordinaire, quite well.

It wasn't everyday that the 6-year-old boy would have the chance to sleep in. He only got lucky in situations where his somewhat sorry excuse of of a father got himself too drunk to attack the poor child to begin their morning ritual of sparring, all in the name of training. Though, some habits are so deeply ingrained in the psyche, that it is no use to try to fight them, since it is so much simpler to give in. In Ranma's case, waking up so early practically everyday made his biological clock permanently tick to that rhythm.

Try as he might, he couldn't go back to sleep once the sun shone through the window upon his face. Begrudgingly accepting his fate, he sat up slowly, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

'I wonder where the old man is. It's been a long time since he's been late for our morning sessions', he thought to himself as he rose from his sitting position, and moved for the bathroom to wash off whatever sleep there was left in him and get on with the day. A day without training meant he could play with Ucchan, and his friend of a few weeks could show him some other areas in Osaka that might be fun to visit. Maybe another martial arts dojo like the week before.

As he entered the small bathroom, he pulled a small stool that was under sink towards him, and stood on it, so that he could reach the sink and see himself in the mirror. Without realizing it, he turned the faucet too fast, and splashed himself with cold, if not frosty, water.

It was to his discomfort that he felt his body twist inside out as he wiped away the water from his face and his bangs, only to see the reflection of a redheaded girl looking back at him from the mirror. He sighed heavily as he opened the faucet again, this time slowly and gently, and continued his morning clean up routine.

As he cleaned up, he couldn't help but think of the stupidity of the entire situation, and how he came to be in such a position. It was all the old man's fault. Him and his stupid ideas. 'Let's go train in China' he said. 'Your mother would be proud of you' he said. That was the main reason he went along. If there was one goal Ranma had his heart set on, it was to make his mother proud. He missed her, it had been barely a year now that he and his father had left home to go on their already infamous training trip. And it came to be, that their first destination was China.

Since he had been trained by his father in the Art since he could walk, the first test his old man had set was to swim across the Sea of Japan. Miraculously he had survived, but he had a sinking feeling that it was going to get worse. His feelings were justified, as the adventures, if you could call them that, that they had ensued. They had been chased by the natives, had little to no food at times, and even had to endure the harsh environment when they could find no shelter. Along with all that, he still couldn't piece together exactly what had happened during the stint which he had a lapse of memory, but he chalked it off to exertion, and left it at that. But the one thing that took the cake was Jusenkyo. If there really was a Hell on earth, he thought, its name would be Jusenkyo. It was also called the Cursed Pools of Sorrow, and aptly so.

His own stupidity for following the old man after all the shit they had been through because of him was partly to blame. Now, he was cursed to spend at least half, if not more, due to the water attraction part of the curse, of his life as a member of the opposite sex. Suffice to say, it did not sit well. All the nonsense that his father had drilled into him since he was younger about the frailty of women had now come back full circle and hit him in the face. And since he now knew that what his father fed him were lies, what else could he have lied about?

By this time, he had already finished cleaning up, and had put on his clothes as he moved from the guest room towards the hall. Odds are Ucchan would be there, and they would go about their day without much ado.

* * *

After a long and tiring day, eating, training, as well as visiting around Osaka, Ranma and Ukyou returned to the Kuonji residence.

"I hope you had fun today, Ranchan. I'm so tired right now that I don't think I'll be able to wake up tomorrow," Ukyou said, panting exaggeratedly.

"I hear ya, Ucchan. I wonder where the old man is, though. Must've gone drinkin' again. I can't believe him!" Ranma said, shouting a bit to the end.

They proceeded to enter the house and head to the showers, separately. After cleaning up, they entered the kitchen for dinner. They found a note stuck to the refrigerator, which read "Dear Ukyou, Saotome-san and I have gone out to celebrate an agreement. We'll tell you about it when we get back. Love, Otousan."

"I guess we shouldn't expect them back any time soon, eh?" asked Ranma, as he grinned, knowing the answer already.

"Well, we'll just have to make do with what we have. Okonomiyaki?" Ukyou said, giving him a toothy smile,

Ranma couldn't help but smile back, replying "Why not."

And so, they went on, having a dinner of Okonomiyaki, which was Ukyou's family's specialty. After dinner, they played a bit, and went off to bed, knowing that their fathers would probably not be back till very much later.

Ranma lay on his mat, facing the ceiling. He thought of the day he had spent, and how he liked life here.

'I could definitely get used to this,' he thought, 'but at the very least, I have to find Mom, and make sure the old coot of a father doesn't further mess up my life.'

He tossed. Then turned. Finally, sleep claimed him, and the dreamless expanse expanded.

In an instant, he was jerked awake, his eyes wide, as he felt a horrible jerking sensation from the core of his being. His entire body was flooded with pain as he opened his mouth to scream. But nothing came out. He started writhing in the agony as a pain worse than any other that he had ever felt washed over him, overloading his senses. From the corner of his eye, he saw his father lying a few feet from him.

He tried desperately to reach out, but his body refused to obey. His nerves were beginning to feel raw, and he knew that even a hundred cats clawing at him would not have felt so bad.

At another time, perhaps, he would have questioned as to how he knew what a hundred cats clawing at him would have felt like, but this was not the place, and now was definitely not the time.

He shrieked silently as he felt an energy surge forward, out of his chest, only to meet a small swirling glow just above him. He felt his body rise, off the floor, and felt the weightlessness as he floated. He would have savored it had it not been for the sudden renewal of pain surging cross his spine.

He instantly regained control of his voice, and in the instant that he screamed, he felt the blackness fill his view, and the tugging on his soul jerked so strongly into the swirl of energy that he felt as though he had been hit like a truck. Then, he gave in to the darkness.


	3. Chapter 1 : What is Konoha?

Lost in Infinity

A Ranma 1/2 - Naruto Crossover  
Chapter 1 : What is Konoha?

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto, and Ranma belongs to Takahashi. So there.

* * *

Consciousness slowly trickled back into his mind, and he realised that he was lying face down on the floor. He also realised that there were quite a number of people around him, and although he didn't feel and killing intent or danger, he still felt very uneasy. 

'Where the hell am I? What did the panda do this time?' were the first thoughts to grace his slowly awakening mind. His eyes groggily opened, just a little, before closing again, the light from outside the room he was in overpowering his senses. He heard a few voices speaking from just outside.

"I can't stand this waiting, this is my daughter's life we're talking about here!" shouted a male voice.

"Yamanaka-san, please try to be calm, we've already sent out our best Search and Rescue team to look for her. Until we hear from them there isn't much we can do," said another male voice calmly, trying to soothe the one known as Yamanaka.

"Alright, alright. Thank you very much Chikei-san. I'll wait downstairs, let me know when the boy wakes. He must know something, I pray that he can help us figure out what happened to Ino," Yamanaka said, as he sighed in defeat.

Ranma heard the footsteps recede, he processed the information he had just garnered from their short discussion, while noticing that there was a guard positioned at the door sill out of the room.

'Was it all a dream? The pain? The blackness?' he thought, as he carefully sat up so as to not make any noise. 'Is Pops going to come and get me, like he always does?' He began to worry. If it truly was a dream, and this was just another hare-brained scheme of his father's, it would all be fine in a few days, but if it wasn't, who knew where he was, or what would happen to him here. But the pain felt so real, and indeed his body felt its after-effects.

"I can't be sure of anything now. I need to find out what's going on," he whispered to no one in particular, as he steadied himself to his feet.

Ranma concentrated on his inner energy, just as his father had thought him, and allowed it to blanket him, and in an instant, he was invisible to the naked eye.

'Looks like the old man's lessons are finally paying off.' he thought, as he carefully walked out the room past the guard, and down the stairs. He figured this would be better, since the windows were not opened, and this would further confuse whoever these people are when they realized that he was gone.

As he walked in the corridor of the ground floor, he felt a few people in a room which he figured was the living room. He spied the man with blond hair, Yamanaka-san, sitting with a woman he guessed must be his wife. She was silently sobbing into the man's shoulder, and the scene tugged at his heart strings as he proceeded to walk to the door, and sneak out into the street.

'No use staying especially when I don't know what's going on,' he rationalized, more out of a veteran thief's instinct than anything else. A legacy of his and his father's lifestyle.

He was barely a few meters away from the house when he heard a loud shout "He's gone!" amidst some other loud but incomprehensible shouting. 'This does not look good' Ranma thought, as he broke into a run.

With his back turned to the house, he didn't notice the black figures that seemed to jump off in every direction from the house, at least half a dozen of them. Neither did he really notice the one that was following him discretely.

As he kept running, he finally reached a dead end of a road that met with the tree line of the forestry surrounding this unknown place.

'I'll have to wait it out here till they stop searching for me. Then I gotta start gatherin' information.' he thought to himself, as he absently scratched the top of his head.

He slowed to a jog, and kept moving till he reached a small clearing, that seemed to be an old camp site. Ranma decided to release the Umisenken technique. His father had only thought him the star-cloth technique, and refused to teach him the rest. Sometimes he wondered what went through his father's head. Why not just teach him the whole set and be done with it?

Of course, he knew that the only reason he was allowed to learn the star-cloth technique was to aid in some of their more illegitimate activities. He sighed, and sat down on a log that had been placed there, perhaps by the frequenters of this site.

He barely blinked when he felt a hand on his shoulder, and turned to face his assailant. His eyes were wide as took in the details of his newest opponent. The person behind him was at least two and a half times his height, and had this scary and eerily shining set of teeth. He tried to leap back and very nearly did, except that another hand was felt on his other shoulder from behind once again, though this one felt softer to the touch.

'This is getting predictable,' he thought sarcastically, and he felt his hands being held behind him as he was dragged away like a sack of potatoes. 'Well, since they didn't get a fight, the least I can do is make this as difficult as possible for them,' he thought as he frowned. He suddenly felt a piece of cloth being stuffed in his mouth.

He crossed his eyes angrily, as he gave both his assailants an evil eye.

"Wow, Hyuuga-san, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that was definitely looked something like your Byakugan," said the weird one with the shiny-toothed smile. Though it might've sounded like a joke, the man (or so he thought it was a man) said it in such a way that made it seem that he actually believed what he said to be true.

"Very funny, Gai-san. Let's just get this mission over. Hokage-sama said he wanted to meet with the child. Surprising that he managed to evade his chuunin guards, ne?" said the woman (this one he was sure, her voice said it all) who seemed to be known as Hyuuga.

They walked off silently after that, with their squirming package being held by Gai. It was a very quiet and fast walk.

--

'What did I do in my past life to deserve this, I'll never know,' the old man with spiky hair sighed. In front of him was a small bundle with black hair tied in a pig-tail, and the bundle was currently mouthing off.

"What the hell is going on, old man? Let me go! The least you can do is untie me, you know! I didn't do anything wrong! I don't even..." and so it went, on and on.

The next thing the old man did came as a surprise to some, but not all of the other six figures standing opposite him, behind the boy.

TWOCK!

"What the hell was that for, old man!" Ranma screamed, as he tried to move his hands to comfort his poor head, in futility. He couldn't really move since his hands were tied behind his back, and he was forced to sit cross-legged.

Having recovered from his punching stance, the old man turned to Ranma again, and kneeled down, eye-to-eye with the boy tied up in front of him.

"Now that you've quietened down, perhaps you will enlighten us on a few matters, eh?" said the old man, "First let me introduce myself. I am the Hokage, and the place you are in is Konohagakure. Now, would you please introduce yourself, so that we may have the comfort in knowing the name of the reason we are all still awake at this ungodly hour?"

"Saotome Ranma," the pig-tailed boy said, somewhat begrudgingly, as he stilled and finally stopped moving.

"Ranma," the Hokage said, in a much more relaxed tone since his ears were not assaulted by the high decibels of noise pollution, "we have a problem right now. A child of one of my villagers is missing. And you were found at the scene. Can you tell us anything about how you came to get there?" he continued to ask calmly.

"Well, all I remember is I was asleep, then I was woken up as something, some kinda energy pulled at me, so hard, it was worse than trying to use Judo on my old man. Then, all of a sudden, everything was black. The next thing I know, I was here," Ranma explained. The old man here seemed sincere, and something compelled him to just tell him everything. Like the man could probably solve anything. But he knew better than to simply place his trust in people. He needed to gather some information of his own, to add to his limited knowledge of where he was and with whom he was speaking with.

The Hokage listened attentively. He pondered over this information quietly for a few moments. The six figures behind Ranma stood ramrod still, never once wavering. Ranma could feel them behind him, and it vexed him as to how they could just stand there for so long. Then, the Hokage raised his head to face the figures, and said to one of them, "Katsuhito, untie the boy."

"Hokage-sama..--" Katsuhito stammered, but was interrupted.

"Untie him. He is not a threat to our village. Let him free for now, we have all the answers he can give us," Sarutobi replied, and was silent as he now pondered what to do with the boy. "Have him taken to a holding room for now, I shall call for him later. Make sure he is comfortable."

Though he wavered before, he would not do so again. "At once, Hokage-sama." Katsuhito untied Ranma, and then led him out, along with another one of the six in the room, who had a head full of silver hair. Ranma couldn't make out much else due to the lighting conditions, and also the fact that this one was walking in front of him, so only his back faced Ranma. He unconsciously rubbed his hands where the rope had tried to cut into his skin as they continued along. The other four were left in the Hokage's chambers.

--

Dawn was slowly creeping across the sky, as three figures were walking in single-file, in the middle of the village, past shops and buildings. The middle one, who was the shortest, seemed very curious in his observation of the surroundings. They had traveled in silence, since Ranma had not asked any questions, neither had his 'honor guard' told him anything. The only thing he knew about his destination for the time being was that it was the same place he had 'escaped' from barely a few hours earlier. Though the place seemed nice, it wasn't what he needed right now; he needed to figure out exactly where he was, and how to get home. Being cooped in a house would not help in that respect.

Although he knew somehow that he could trust the Hokage, his survival instinct from living on the road with his father for as long as they had were nagging at the back of his head. 'Escape,' the voice said. 'Don't just let them drag you off,' it continued. Nag, nag, nag. Now, he couldn't help but agree. He couldn't just let himself get dragged off without knowing everything about the situation, now could he. Thus, he decided to get away the same way he did the last time, though he wasn't entirely sure how the found him then.

He raised his inner energy, and just in time to see his guards turn to look at him, he disappeared completely from sight. He took to the side of the road into an alley they had passed by earlier. 'They probably wouldn't recover for a little while,' he thought, and continued to maneuver the maze that was the back alleys of Konoha. What he failed to notice was the single red irised eye that watched his exact position while he escaped. Neither did he see the smirk on the face of the owner of the eye, who was one of his guards.

--

The pig-tailed youth yawned as he awoke, stretching his arms behind him as he tried to keep awake. The pig-tailed youth kept at a steady pace after escaping his guards, while taking short breaks to catch up on his sleep. He was after all only 6 years old, and there was only so much that his body could take. However, the hard gravel ground did not offer much comfort, and he began to wonder whether he would actually be able to escape this citadel, since he had yet to even find a wall or gate.

Still, he kept his pace as best he could. The last time he had slowed down was the time he got caught. He definitely learned from that experience, and decided that discretion was the better part of valor. Thus, he kept running and running. His breath came out in a steady quick rhythm, and you could tell that his stamina was being slowly depleted. He knew he would have to rest soon. But he decided to just keep pushing, and wait till he found a relatively safe spot to rest and hide.

The labyrinth that was the alleyways of Konoha, which although seemed quite small, was in truth much larger than it seemed. But at last, instead of viewing row after row of shops out of each exit he had seen, he once again spied the luscious greenery that was a second home to him, regardless of where he was. He approached the screen of light from the exit, when he suddenly tripped over something.

With a loud thud, he found himself on the floor. 'What the heck did I crash into? Dad wouldn't be happy if he ever heard me ending up like this,' he thought, smirking at the thought that formed in his mind as he lifted himself up. He also realised that it would be wise to rest a bit, since he had pushed himself a little too far, and was a bit disappointed that he had not gauged himself properly, and that led to his loss in perception. Not good habits for a martial artist.

'What the-' was all that formed in Ranma's mind as he spotted the cause of his trip. A boy, no older than him, was huddled beside a small dumpster, which was why he did not see the boy before this. However, it was more the condition of the boy that startled him. His hair was disheveled, its original brightness overwhelmed by the dirt that made it a very dirty blond. He could not see the boy's face at first as it was hidden in the shadows and the boy seemed to be staring at the ground, but soon after the accident, the boy lifted his face find what had disturbed him.

Bloodshot blue eyes stared at cloudy blue-gray. Still sitting on the ground, Ranma could not help but be drawn into those eyes; they begged him to stay, for some reason. Begged him to accept. He saw fear as well. He could not tell exactly, but there was a fear in those eyes. They simply stared at each other for a while. Nothing was said, but there was some kind of exchange taking place. Ranma broke the pregnant silence with a step towards the boy, and held his hand out.

"Hi there. Sorry for runnin' over ya like that. You okay?" he asked.

The boy looked surprised at the gesture Ranma made, and seemed to be at a loss at what to do.

"I'm okay. Thanks for asking." he replied in a hoarse voice, indicating he hadn't spoken or drank anything in quite a while. "Why are you still here?" he continued, his eyes narrowing somewhat, the whisker like marks becoming ever prominent on his face.

To say Ranma was taken aback was an understatement. Sure, he had been chased around before; his father always said that such exercises were good training experiences. But to be asked such a question, not to mention the tone was ever more confusing. There was no hate, no malice behind in it. Only simple, curiosity.

"Er.. I just thought that I should see if you were okay. I mean, I've taken harder falls, but I ain't never met anyone that was as tough as me, so I don't know if you were alright or not," Ranma said, the bewildered expression still on his face. "I'm Ranma," he went on, "what's your name?"

There was a pause, and the boy opened his mouth, "Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto."

A longer pause followed after that. Ranma could barely stand it, and it grated on his nerves. Still, he couldn't just leave the other boy. His eyes held so much pain, more than Ranma thought you could ever find in a single person. Sure, he had seen pain in other people's eyes before, but never so much. Thus, he did the only thing he could do.

"So... Naruto-kun...want to be friends?"

If Ranma thought that Naruto's eyes were bright, since the blue was a very stark color, it didn't compare to the brightness it now held. In fact, it seemed that his whole countenance was lifted upon hearing those words, no matter how half-hearted they sounded. Like his life depended on it. And the smile that followed was so wide that you could barely see his eyes.

Though he was confused, Naruto couldn't help but smile. "Sure," he said, the one word containing everything he wished to say, all his positive emotions.

With that, they walked off together, as Naruto chatted animatedly with his new-found friend. Ranma was taken aback, but happy to see the other boy actually smiling, the earlier frown that seemed like it was his actual face forgotten.

--

They spent most of the day being regular "pain-in-the-neck"-s, as Naruto introduced Ranma to his favourite past time; pulling pranks on everyone and their mother. From exchanging the Hokage's waiting room magazines with adult-rated material, to painting graffiti on dumpsters, to placing chalk dusters over door frames. By the time lunch had come and past, which they had shared at Ichiraku Ramen at the expense of Iruka's tab, of course, they finally settled down at the playground, just around the early evening when most other children came out to play.

It hadn't been long till his curse revealed itself to his new found friend. Being the water magnet that he was, it was definitely shocking that it didn't happen sooner than it did. However, the whiskered boy found it hilarious, while gross at the same time. "Must be pretty yucky to be a girl sometimes, ne?" he had said, and while Ranma had to agree, it didn't stop him from sending the blond boy a withering stare, which was promptly laughed off. But a certain gleam in Naruto's eye told Ranma to be wary. The pranks they pulled together only showed the proficiency of the Uzumaki boy in being a trickster, and he definitely would not want any of that coming his way. His train of thought was broken as the breeze picked up and sent some leaves at his face. Naruto laughed at the spectacle, before settling in.

Naruto instinctively headed for his favourite swing, which was basically a plank tied to a large tree branch. As he sat there, Ranma placed himself on the ground close to the swing. They sat there, contented with the havoc they had wracked upon the quiet village of Konoha. Naruto, because for the first time in his life, he had someone to share his pranks with, and Ranma, who found that spending time with Naruto was as much fun as the times he spent playing with Ucchan, and that in itself kept him from the heavy thoughts of his current displacement.

As they both sat there, slowly a number of children started heading towards the immediate vicinity of the playground, which was just opposite the Ninja Academy, as many of them had just finished with class for the day. Just as well, a number of parents appeared as well, some to take their children home, while others to socialize with others as their children played. As both adults and children alike, got closer to the playground, and into the direct line of sight of the lone tree swing, a great silence swept across the yard.

Though most were quite neutral looking, small sneers formed on the faces of some of the adults, as the children slowly, carefully backed up from the playground to the relative safety of their parents. Many harsh whispers were heard. "Monster," some said. "Evil," said others. Some even went as far as to say "..the doom of us all." Ranma watched curiously at the actions of the villagers, whom one would think would treat one of their own with as much caring as their own family. His thoughts ceased the moment he caught a glimpse of Naruto's face.

Ranma paid the parents and children no heed as they vacated the area, his thoughts were steered in another direction. Naruto's face was a weird amalgamation of emotions. Hate, anger, fear, and a great sadness all mingled into one very heavy feeling. The tears that streaked down his face simply could not convey the sheer intensity of what he was feeling. Ranma felt his heart wrenched at the sight.

It was at this moment, that he did the only thing he could think of in a situation like this. If there was one thing, and only one thing that Ranma remembered about his mother, it was that she could instantly heal any hurt or pain, with a simple hug. It was this image of her that kept the six-year-old going in his short but torturous time he spent training with his father. Remembering the relief that washed over him by such an act, and seeing his new friend in such a pained state, he literally jumped from where he was and consumed the blond boy in a tight hug, patting his back, telling him it was going to be okay.

As they stood there, he heard Naruto mumble, something along the lines of, "Why...why won't they just accept me...So alone...Just want to belong...," and after that, it just deteriorated. He continued to hold the blond boy till all he could hear was a very relaxed, and constant breathing. He slowly lay Naruto against the tree so that he was leaning against it on his back with his legs stretched out in front of his, as he sat cross-legged on his own.

Ranma contemplated Naruto's words. At the same time, remembering his mother brought the whole situation that he was in right to the forefront, forcing him to face his predicament. It finally dawned upon him that he was alone in this new world save for his friend, and there was a possibility that he would never see his family again. It was definitely past due for his father to collect him had it been one of the old man's hare-brained schemes. The tense atmosphere was still looming over him as he pondered this. Finally, he reached a conclusion.

"Looks like I'll have to go back to that Hokage person. He's the only one that might be able to help me. At least he seemed strong," he said, thinking aloud more than talking to anyone in particular. However, there was someone who did hear what he said.

"Well, well. Since you've come to a splendid decision, let's not waste anymore of this precious spring time, and see the Hokage, eh?" came a voice from the bushes.

Ranma immediately sat up, his eyes wide in surprise, as he took to a loose stance of Anything-Goes to defend himself against any possible threat.

A loud sigh came from the same direction. "Well Gai, since you already gave away our position, we might as well step out and explain the situation to the boy," said another voice, while its owner stepped out of the bushes, showing his masked face and bright gray hair.

Ranma maintained his position for a moment, then relaxed as he realised that these were some of the guards that he saw while he was at the Hokage's office the day before.

The other shinobi in a green uniform simply gave him a smile, which seemed quite genuine enough. "We're here to escort you to meet with the Hokage again, as he wishes to share some news with you."

Seeing that he had made up his mind, and these two were already presenting him with the best way out of this mess, Ranma decided to go with them without causing any problems again. "Sure, why not. Just one thing. What 'bout my friend?" he said, pointing to the sleeping Naruto by the tree.

"Don't worry about him, I'll take him to his quarters, you can just follow my eternal rival to meet with the Hokage," said the ninja known as Gai, as he reached forward to scoop Naruto into his arms, and proceeded to run off into the general direction of the housing area of Konoha.

The other one, an eternal rival of sorts, just smiled as his lone left eye crinkled into a thin upward curved line. "Shall we?" he asked, in a slight bow, gesturing in the direction of their eventual destination.

As the sun continued to descend into the hills, the two mismatched travelers walked off.

--

Both Ranma and his guard, who he had recently learned was called Kakashi, entered the Yamanaka household through the main entrance as soon as they reached it, both intent on finishing up with business as fast as possible. As they entered the living room, all three of its occupants looked in their direction, and they followed up with a soft greeting. Both Inoshi Yamanaka and his wife, Midori, looked on with slight curiosity, though the bulk of their emotional expenditure was due to the worry regarding their lost daughter. Kakashi gave a brief nod to the Hokage, and took his position beside him, as Ranma sat on one of the sofas.

"I'll try my best not to waste your time here, so I'll make this as brief as possible," said the Hokage, in his rough, nasal voice. "As you well know, Inoshi, I do have my best shinobi on this case, however, from what I've gathered from Ranma, her disappearance might be completely out of all our hands." His words struck deep into the hearts of its recipients. Ranma zoned out in his thoughts, and the Yamanaka's were both stunned and depressed by this news.

"Rest assured," he continued, "I will do everything I can to determine the cause of this happening, and if anything can be done, I will make sure it is," he assured them, as best he could.

A pregnant pause filled the air, and was broken by Inoshi. "Thank you, Hokage-sama. I know that you will do your best. Perhaps, we can adjourn for now, my wife and I are very tired from this entire ordeal," he said, his eyes growing ever sadder, as he gazed into the black orbs of his wife which reflected the same.

"Of course. However, there is one other matter of business I would like to discuss with you and your wife, which cannot wait," Sarutobi said in a serious tone. He turned to face Ranma, who was sitting on his left, "Ranma-kun, I realize that you are just as lost as we are in this, and that you might be here for some time. To that end, you will definitely need a place to stay. However, we do not have any immediately available locations at this time," he said, as he turned once again to face Inoshi, "would it be okay if the boy was to stay at your house for a while, until we can sort things out?" he asked politely.

Inoshi took a moment to absorb the information placed before him, and took a look at the boy directly opposite him. For the first time since the day before, he got a real good glimpse at the child. He remembered the panic that he felt when he first looked into his daughter's room after hearing a loud thud, and finding this child instead of his own. But he couldn't fault the boy. The situation was out of his control as well. Inoshi sighed. It wouldn't do to punish the child for something that was not his fault. Lastly he faced his wife. It seemed that she too was coming to the same conclusion, and she gave him a look which said it all. He turned to face Sarutobi, and said, "It is alright with me, Hokage-sama. But is it alright with the boy?"

Sarutobi faced Ranma, and asked "Ranma-kun?"

In Ranma's head as well, a swirl of emotions flew past him. The pain that he felt after the incident with Naruto was still pulling at him, and the memories assailed him. He looked back at the Hokage, and answered with as much politeness as he could muster, "Thank you very much, Hokage-san. I accept."

Sarutobi smiled widely as he surveyed the people before him. His plan would be a success. "Since that's all settled, I'll be getting back to my office, since I have much work to take care of still. If any of you need anything, please stop by." He knew that Ranma and the Yamanaka's would need some time to warm up, and that their presence would only impede that. Thus, he then bid them farewell, and left with Kakashi.

--

Not long after, two figures were seen walking towards the Tower. It was the taller one of the two that broke the silence that permeated the ambiance.

"I see your plan went off without a hitch," Kakashi said, with a grin plastered on his face.

"Yes, it did, didn't it?" Sarutobi replied, while chuckling slightly. "They both need time to heal. And it seems that their wounds perfectly compliment each other."

"So, you think this is permanent, sensei?"

"I can't say for sure, but we didn't detect anything, which means that its not chakra based. And if it's not chakra based, then we have very little understanding or intel on the matter. But I did make a promise, and even if I can't find a solution, then I will do my best to smoothen the effects," he said, in a serious tone.

Kakashi couldn't help but nod, and he knew that the sincerity of the Hokage's words were genuine. "Then I will do all that I can to assist you, Hokage-sama," he said, adding emphasis to Sarutobi's title.

"I could not ask for any more, Kakashi. Thank you."

They continued to walk, allowing the silence to find its equilibrium once more.

* * *

A/N: This is rewrite of the first chapter, with a lot of things fixed. I rewrote this chapter after reading a review that made much sense, by Hibiki54, and while I did explain that I expected Ranma to be smarter than your average 6 year old, I concede that Ranma was too smart. Thus, I wrote it to make his responses and thought patterns less mature, but keep in line with the storyline. Please let me know how it feels, and if you note anything wrong or screwy. Thanks ;) 

Lastly, I may reedit this one last time later on for adding in things like bold and italics, cause I'm posting this up around 2am in the morning.


	4. Chapter 2 : What is Ninja Academy?

Lost in Infinity

A Ranma 1/2 - Naruto Crossover  
Chapter 2 : What is Ninja Academy?

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto, and Ranma belongs to Takahashi. So there.

* * *

Ranma awoke to a smell that was quite alien to his senses. Never before had his nose been assailed by such a fragrance so early in the morning. Food was something that he and his old man had always had to fight for, and although they had never really had to starve, such a beautiful smell was never they had the luxury of experiencing. 

He opened his eyes, and realized that he was not in his room at Ucchan's place. With that epiphany in his mind, he jolted awake, and looked around the room cautiously. Once his brain had woken up, it registered the situation, and all the memories of the night before returned. He relaxed then, recollecting the events that led him to this point, sitting up on a bed, in a house that was not his own, and in a world that he had barely spent a day in.

He rubbed his eyes, brushing all traces of sleep that had not escaped when he jolted awake, and slowly got to his feet, the fragrance of breakfast once again taking top priority in his hierarchy of actions. He put his clothes back on, since he had taken them off before sleeping, and due to the fact that the only clothes available in the home of his benefactors were meant for the opposite gender, he would have to live with what he had on his back, at least until they went shopping to get some new ones.

As he walked down the stairs, he thought about his current benefactors. The Yamanaka family of Konohagakure no Sato were a very generous couple, and they were quite nice to him. Although he was somehow indirectly involved with the disappearance of their six-year-old daughter, they still treated him like a member of the family, like he had been there all his life. Even as he missed his father, and the memories of his mother, the pang of loss was somewhat alleviated by the feeling or welcome that he felt.

"Good morning, Midori-san, Inoshi-san," Ranma called out as he entered the kitchen.

"Good morning, Ranma-kun. Have a seat, I hope you like pancakes," she said cheerfully with a smile. It seemed as if the events of the past few days had never occurred.

Ranma had a seat as Yamanaka Inoshi greeted him as well, though the emotional toll was more apparent on his face. One thing Ranma noted was that either Inoshi had a very unique sense of fashion, or it was some kinda of uniform. The loose black pants and green jacket that he wore over a fishnet shirt were definitely among the top ten list of unusual clothes for Ranma, and he had definitely seen some weird looking clothes during his time in China.

His introspect was broken however, as Inoshi addressed him.

"Ranma-kun, since you're going to be staying in Konoha for a while, the Hokage has asked me to help you get settled in, and by this, he meant to enroll you in either the local school, or the Ninja Academy."

When the word "school" hit Ranma, he was ready to try and wiggle his way out, but before he could begin processing the various excuses that had been drilled into him by his father to deter truancy officers, curiosity overwhelmed him when he heard the words "Ninja Academy."

"Basically, it's your choice, but it would be better if you had something to fill your time with. I assume that it is normal for children your age to go to school in your world?" Inoshi continued. He had been informed of most of the findings that Sandaime Hokage had come up with through the questioning of Ranma two days before.

"Er...yeah...I suppose..."was all that Ranma could stammer out. "Inoshi-san, did you just say Ninja Academy?"

"Yes, I did. Let me briefly tell you about this village. You see, Konoha is actually a ninja village, in fact it's the largest ninja village on the continent," he said, "and because of that, we have a Ninja Academy to train those who wish to walk the shinobi path." Inoshi had an air of pride as he finished, and he had good reason too. The village of Konohagakure was well known across the continent not just for its size, but for might of its shinobi force.

"At the academy, students learn various ninja skills, including genjutsu, ninjutsu, and taijutsu," Inoshi continued.

"What exactly are those?" Ranma interrupted.

"Genjutsu are illusionary skills, where you force your opponent to see reality as you wish him to see. Ninjutsu refers to the various skills, elemental or otherwise, that can be used to attack your opponent. Taijutsu are fighting disciplines, like martial arts," Inoshi explained.

The key word had been sent. If Ranma wasn't sold before, he was now. Martial arts was the one thing that could separate Ranma and food, and up till now was his life. His eyes lit up, and it looked as if he was completely recharged.

"When do we start!" he shouted, surprising the Yamanaka couple.

"First things first young man, I think you should finish your breakfast. It wouldn't do to for a growing boy to run around on an empty stomach," Midori chided, though she smiled as if she was joking.

Ranma's stomach seemed to agree with her, and growled loudly. Ranma blushed slightly as both adults gave him a dead-panned look, the broke out in laughter. He took to the pancakes soon after, and finished them up as fast as he could. It was a sight that left both adults with an awed expression.

"Er...Ranma-kun, have you ever heard of table manners?" Inoshi questioned, somewhat wide-eyed, wondering if he was trapped in some sort of genjutsu rather than reality.

"Farfel Faffers?" Ranma replied, a composite of pancakes and syrup spurting out of his of oral cavity.

"Never mind," Inoshi said, holding his hand to his head, while shaking it. Midori laughed at the spectacle.

Seeing that Ranma had finished with his pancakes, she moved to collect his plate. As she reached out, she accidentally knocked the glass of cold milk that she had left for Ranma onto said boy.

"I'm so sorry Ranma-ku..." she began, but stopped when she saw the cute red-headed girl sitting in the same chair Ranma was in just a moment before, wearing the pig-tailed boy's clothes as well. "W-who a-are yo-u?" she stammered, wondering where the boy had disappeared, and where the girl had come from. Inoshi on the other hand, was wondering when the boy performed the henge, since he saw no hand seals. Then again, how could the boy know the seals, since he wasn't of this world? Did they have ninja there as well?

Ranma-chan sighed. No matter how many times she did it, the explanation never became any easier. Not to mention all the junk that Genma had filled her head with made her rather embarrassed every time she had to do it.

"Er...I can explain, but I need two glasses of water, one hot, and one cold."

Inoshi was the first to respond, since he was quite used to henge techniques, and while Midori knew about them, she rarely had the opportunity to see it first hand. Inoshi had her sit down while he approached the sink to retrieve the cups of water. He then set them cups down on the table, in front of Ranma-chan, and sat back in his chair.

After a brief explanation of the curse, both adults were quite perplexed by their charge.

But all in all, living in a village full of ninja that could do many interesting, and sometimes down right weird things, made one able to accept things of a weird nature quite easily.

"Well, if that's all it is, maybe we should see Hokage-sama later on to see if there is anything he can do. But think about it! You have a 'skill' that requires absolutely no chakra! This curse, as you call it, could even make you a candidate for ANBU," Inoshi exclaimed loudly.

Though Ranma-chan was lost, and quite surprised that they took it so easily, she decided to just go along with it.

"Well, let's get going, maybe we can squeeze in a visit to Hokage-sama's office before signing you up for the academy," Inoshi said, as he stood up and collected his flak jacket which he had hung on his chair. Together, both he and Ranma-chan said their goodbyes to Midori, and left.

--

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'GO AS A GIRL'!" Ranma-chan shouted, nearly shattering both Sandaime's and Inoshi's eardrums with the sheer intensity of her voice. She couldn't believe them! They actually said it would be better for her to go to school as a girl, so that her curse wouldn't be detected. If there was ever a time that Ranma-chan really thought of it as a curse, this was such a time.

"Ranma-kun," Sarutobi said with a slight chuckle, "I didn't say that I wouldn't look into this. I'll see what I can dig up. Since it is a water based curse, perhaps we can devise some water element seal to help with it. Just try to go with the plan for now, it can't be that bad, can it?"

Ranma-chan seethed silently in her chair. What Sandaime said made sense, and it wasn't ALL that bad. He sighed, and nodded his wordless agreement.

"Well, if that's all settled, you should head on to your class, while Inoshi-san should report for duty. I will inform your teacher of your admission," Sarutobi said, dismissing them both.

Inoshi bowed, and both he and Ranma-chan walked out of the room. Outside, he gave Ranma-chan directions to the academy, and then went off on his own, leaving Ranma-chan by herself.

Ranma-chan decided to at least check out the academy, because it was definitely possible that she could learn something there, and since it wasn't normal school, but a place for training ninja, it would definitely be interesting. A smile crept onto her face as she walked onwards, according to the directions she was given.

--

As Inoshi walked off, he thought over the meeting he had just left. Some of the things they went over had reopened the emotional scars of that fateful evening, two days ago. But one thing was certain. If anything, Ranma was in just the same situation as his daughter, and if it came down to anything, he would look after the boy; hopefully, there would be someone kind enough to do the same for his daughter.

He knew that whatever pain he was feeling would definitely be mirrored in the hearts of Ranma's parents. Both he and his wife knew from what the Hokage told them that, the chances of Ino coming back were quite slim, and they should be prepared for that outcome. It would definitely be much the same for Ranma going home. He had decided then that he would help the pig-tailed boy to fit in with this new world. It was the least he could do. But there was another thing that flew about in his mind.

"Why exactly did Hokage-sama also want him to start classes at the Ninja Academy so early?"

Although it wasn't unusual to have children younger than 7 joining the academy, it was definitely a rare occurrence. What had the boy done to make the Hokage want him in the academy as soon as possible?

He laughed though, when he thought about the next thing Hokage-sama had said. He shared the opinion that Ranma would be better off attending the academy as a girl, at least until they can find some way to stabilize his curse. The boy couldn't really last more than 15 minutes at a time before he became the target of some unnatural water attack. It was a miracle that he had managed to keep himself dry during the time he had arrived till today at breakfast.

His introspect was interrupted as he realized that he was late for work. He broke off in a run, hoping not to incur the wrath of his team.

--

"Class, we have a new student with us, and her name is..." the chuunin teacher said, pointing to Ranma-chan to introduce herself.

"Ino...Inozumi Yamanaka," she said, in a slight growl. It was the name her cursed form had been given, especially since she was staying with the Yamanaka family.

The teacher did note the growl, and decided that he better be careful with this one. "Why don't you take a seat, Ino-chan?"

Ranma-chan nodded her agreement, and planted herself next to a weird looking boy with white eyes eyes, and long black hair. He paid her no heed, and she did the same. The teacher started on with the lesson, and soon Ranma-chan found herself half asleep, as the theory parts were very boring.

'Did I even think about what I was getting myself into?' she lamented to herself, as she was starting to regret signing up for the academy. 'Seems just like school back at home.'

Suddenly the teacher's voice broke through her monologue. "Okay class, let's head out to the training field for target practice and some practical taijutsu, to see if you can apply what you've learned today." The whole classes erupted with noise as the students talked quite loudly while they departed from the class to their next destination. Ranma-chan watched them, and then saw that his pupil-less 'companion' had yet to move either. She decided to move and follow the rest of the class before she was left behind completely.

--

By the time they reached the field, she was surprised to note that the white-eyed boy was already there. Before she could invest any more 'thinking' into it, the teacher started with the training line-up for the day.

"Everyone, please line-up in two rows, we will start with shuriken throwing, once you are finished, move over to the sparring area for some taijutsu practice," the teacher said, as he started to walk around and see how his students were faring. When his eyes stopped on Ranma-chan, he stepped over to her. "Since you're new, and you've started quite late into the year, why don't you watch the other students first, then join in when you're comfortable, Ino-chan?"

Ranma-chan nodded, and moved into a better position to observe her classmates. She spied the white-eyed boy in one of the lines, and decided to check him out. She was getting a weird feeling from him, and if there was one thing she was certain of, it was to follow her instincts. She watched as one by one, the students took hold of their shurikens, and hurl them towards a bunch of target dummies with bull's eye nailed at several locations, indicating a part of the human body. Many of the other children were not bad, but most were not consistent. They would hit the bull's eye once, then miss a few times, get close, and continue to miss.

Then came the white-eyed boy's turn. She noticed that he had a bandage on his forehead, wrapping around his head. He took aim, and swung his hands gracefully, allowing the shurikens to arc through the air, hitting the targets with pin point accuracy. It was then that Ranma-chan realized that the boy's eyes were closed! It was quite a shock to her. But nonetheless, watching that boy perform had given her all the information she needed. If there was one thing she prided herself in, it was her ability to see fights once, and be able to emulate, and ultimately master, moves that she had never seen or used before.

She then walked forward and picked up some shurikens from the basket the teacher had prepared for them to use. Quite a number of students had applauded once the white-eyed boy, Neji, she heard some of them call him as they cheered him, had finished, and most left to start with the taijutsu practice. Ranma-chan stood at the line, and focused, breathing in, and suddenly, she whipped out. Although her movements were slightly jerky, the shurikens cut through the air, finding all their targets. The few who were still there watched in amazement, and suddenly cheered her. She smiled at them, and headed towards the taijutsu practice area. It was then that she noticed that Neji was staring at her from the taijutsu practice area.

"You used my technique," he said, in a matter-of-factly manner.

Unsure how to answer, Ranma-chan merely stared at the boy.

Seeing no response, Neji set his gaze back unto the taijutsu sparring area. The teacher was now pairing up the students for sparring.

"Well done, Ino-chan, that was very good for a first timer," he said, smiling.

"Thank you sensei."

"Why don't we test your combat prowess now, so we can come up with a fitting training schedule for you, ne?" he said, "Neji-kun, would you spar with Ino-chan, so that I can gauge her ability?" he asked Neji.

"Yes, sensei," was Neji's reply. The children faced each other, and slipped into their respective stances. Neji's was a basic taijutsu stance, with his left hand held out in knife-hand, and his right hand held closer to his chest, while his legs were about shoulder width apart. Ranma-chan just stood there, her Anything-Goes casual stance, meant to catch opponents off-guard.

Seeing that Ranma-chan wasn't going to attack any time soon, Neji took the initiative to burst forward. He charged with a kick, only to find his target missing from his frontal view. However, Neji knew where she was. The moment he landed, he sprung again towards the direction he had come from earlier, this time with a heavy punch. Once again his target was missing. This cycle repeated itself, until a few minutes later, when Neji had lost his patience. He ran through some hand-seals, and instantly, several veins around his eyes bulged, as his eyes transformed. With his Byakugan, he found his target within his range of divination.

Ranma-chan on the other hand, was having quite a bit of fun. She jumped, and dodged, enjoying the gain in speed this body of hers gave her. When she sensed something different in the ambiance, she realized she ought to get serious. Neji looked quite pissed, not to mention those bulging veins.

'Don't these things only happen in cartoons?' she thought to herself, as she jumped out of the way of the next punch aimed at her. However, her path was already blocked by a swift kick to her midsection, and she pulled back, breathing a little heavier.

"Within my divination, there is no where you can hide," Neji said, a slight smirk on his face, as he slipped gracefully into the forms of Jyuken, a form of taijutsu exclusive to the Hyuuga clan. His legs were spread at shoulder width, and his hands were open palmed, both facing inwards, one in front of him at chest level, with the other behind him, over his head.

"Whatever, let's get this over with," Ranma-chan said, seeing that she would have to pull out the stops to end this. It looked like Neji didn't like being played with. Then again, who would? 'I knew I shouldn't have listened to Pops. All his lame-brained ideas always backfire on ME, and it never ends. Got to stop following his advise, or I'm definitely going to die young'.

As Neji attacked, Ranma seemed to disappear from sight. One thing she noted was Neji was no longer using fists, but rather open-palmed strikes. Not to mention the force she felt when she grazed past him. Luckily it was not a direct hit, since the indirect hit already cause such a sting. 'Is he hitting my pressure points?' was the question running through Ranma-chan's mind as she prepared to launch a counter assault.

Neji strikes were getting closer and closer, as Ranma-chan spun to face him. His palm struck her right chest, while her finger-strike hit his solar-plexus. Both impacts jarred the combatants slightly, but they stood generally in the same position. The fight at this point had garnered the attention of the rest of the class, since their sparring was never usually this intense.

Blue eyes locked with white. Then, both collapsed on the ground. The last thing Ranma-chan saw was the teacher's rushing form picking her up, and yelling to another student to call someone, and the rest was black.

--

Ranma awoke for the second time that day, but this time to a smell far less pleasant that the one in the morning. The scent of ointments, oils and other various oddities filled the room. She got her bearings, and realized she was in her room at the Yamanaka house, and standing in the doorway was Inoshi, and her teacher from the academy.

"Thanks for your help, Umino-san," Inoshi said, wrapping up their conversation.

"No problem, Yamanaka-san. I have to go and check on Neji-kun now, but I think he should be okay. I was more worried about Ino-chan, since she just started today," the man called Umino said, and he waved as he disappeared into a cloud of smoke.

Inoshi turned to see Ranma-chan awake, staring at him. "Well, quite a thing to do, on the first day of school," he said jovially. "Pushing a member of the Hyuuga clan to a draw, no wonder Hokage-sama wanted you to start. Oh, there is a glass of warm water on the cabinet, if you want to change back," he mentioned.

Ranma-chan nodded, still dazed from the encounter this afternoon. He noticed the sky was dark, as he peered through the window next to the beside cabinet. He took the water, and poured a little on his head, and felt the now familiar change overcome him.

"It's getting late, Ranma. Midori saved some dinner for you, so you might want to finish that up and take a shower, and head to bed to recover. I'm actually quite surprised to see you awake so soon, especially since you took a direct hit from a Jyuuken strike."

"Thank you, Inoshi-san. I think I'll go with your plan, it sounds good."

Inoshi smiled at the blue eyed boy, and turned to leave the room. Ranma decided food should come first, and headed over to the kitchen to enjoy the meal prepared. After cleaning up, he decided to stay with the plan, and went to sleep.

* * *

OLD A/N: Well, thats all I've written for now, will start work on the next few chapters soon. Please give me your feedback, if you have any. 

Updated A/N: This is another rewrite, merely adding in details here and there, since I couldn't really find a way to fix much. Although the Neji fight was a little stupid, I just couldn't figure out how to fix or delete it properly. In any ways, it does have bearings on future Ranma/Neji interaction, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Another thing, will probably do the same later as with the last chapter, which is to edit one last time for bold and italics. Sumimasen.


	5. Chapter 3 : What is the Scroll of Seals?

Lost in Infinity

A Ranma 1/2 - Naruto Crossover  
Chapter 3 : What is the Scroll of Seals?

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto, and Ranma belongs to Takahashi. So there.

* * *

It was a clear morning, and the sky was blue. The temperature was moderate and humid, as expected of a dense jungle. Three figures were seen walking a seldom used path, towards a valley in the thick of this unknown jungle. Among the three, there were two adults, and a child, all three of whom were male. They walked silently, as they had done for nearly four hours now, yet only the man dressed in a Maoist uniform showed any signs of fatigue. The other man, bald and bespectacled as he was, and the child of no more than 5 years of age, had a light sheen of sweat, as if the journey was like a stroll in the park. 

Finally, they exited the jungle, and came across a vast amount of pools of water. The pools numbered in thousands, as far as the eye could see. The Maoist man spoke first.

"Ah, we have arrived, honored sirs! This is famous training ground, the cursed valley of Jusenkyo!" he exclaimed in heavily accented Japanese, his voice carrying a certain pride in it.

"Don't look like much, Pops," the boy said, and he was right. Although the pools numbered vastly, they seemed to be nothing more than knee high in depth, and had bamboo poles that looked past rotten sticking out of them.

"Do you not feel it boy? There is a power here," the older of the two said, "and we will train and harness that energy!" he shouted, as he dropped his heavy pack on the ground, and straightened his gi, all in one motion. The next thing he did was to jump straight at one of the poles, and he landed with a grace that belied his rather heavy stock appearance.

The guide was a little nervous at this point, seeing his customer jump to the poles. "Sir, be careful, do not fall in the pools. Is very, very bad!" he shouted, hoping that he might not lose another potential customer. Why, oh why did they always want to jump around here. Didn't they read the guidebook mentioning the valley's characteristics?

The boy dropped his bag as well, and pulled at his pig-tail slightly. He then looked at his father with fierce determination as he spoke.

"Here I come, pops," he smirked, and he charged.

His father met him in the air, and they joined in battle. The exchange was brief though, and they parted to land on opposite facing poles.

The boy knew his father was going easy on him, and it irked him. But, as always, he smirked again, and charged forward, intent on pushing his father to open up his arsenal, as he always tried in their many fights.

The father analyzed his son's style and technique, and realized that he would have to up the notch. It was at this moment that he miscalculated the force behind his next strike, and kicked the boy a little too hard.

"Arghh!" the boy cried out, as his instincts kicked in. Though in pain, his body was trained to deal with certain things in certain ways, and to deal with falls, his father had drilled it into him to spin and flow with it, and try to land in a soft area while rolling to diffuse the momentum. His current trajectory could not be changed, and he knew that he was heading for a pool of water. In the split second before he hit the surface, he spun in the air, trying to avoid the water. But it was of no consequence as a loud splash was heard.

He opened his eyes beneath the water, and suddenly convulsed in pain, as his body felt like it was moving his parts left, right and center. He cried out, but only succeeded to drink some of the water rather than release his agony audibly. His gut was on fire, and there was nothing he could do. His view slowly faded to black, and to nothingness...

--

"ArrghhhhhhhhhH!"

Ranma awoke with a start as he screamed, and slowly his shallow breath became the only thing he heard, as he slowly calmed himself. His room door to his left creaked open, and light flooded in as best it could through the small opening.

"Are you okay Ranma?" Midori asked, her soothing voice doing wonders for Ranma's frazzled nerves.

"Yeah, I'm okay Mom. Just a bad dream. It's okay now," he said, not wanting to worry Midori too much.

"Okay, but if anything comes up, let me know, 'kay?" she asked him, though it was a rhetorical question. Ranma nodded to show his acceptance, and the door closed again. The pig-tailed ninja-in-training slowly gathered his thoughts.

'_It's been a while since I've had _that_ dream. Heck, it's been a while since I've dreamed of the old panda.' _Ranma thought. He lay back on the bed, studying the star constellation maps he had on his ceiling. They glowed dimly, since it'd been a while since he last charged the chakra seals that made them do so. He smiled, as the stars always had a calming effect on him, much like his 'mother's' voice. Slowly, his eyes closed, and his mind faded into a dreamless sleep.

--

The crowing of a cock was heard, and despite himself, Ranma found his mind returning to the land of the living. He opened his eyes, and yawned loudly as he stretched. Despite the fact that his mind was still hazy, his body moved on autopilot, heading to the bathroom to wash up. He cleaned up, and finished with a splash of cold water on his face to finish the process. It cleared his head not because of the chill, but because of the ever familiar tingle that washed over his body as he changed to his cursed form.

She looked at her body as she recalled how long it had been since she had had it. The dream from earlier sparked a few memories, and from what she saw in the mirror, she had grown quite well. It seemed that the cursed form aged just as his original body did. Ranma smiled as she walked over to the dresser and picked out her favorite red and black shirt, followed by her usual pants that tapered at her ankles. Along went her standard ninja sandals in her hand, and then she was out the door.

Ranma found herself at the dining table, the call of her mother's food just too good to pass up. It was pancakes today, her favorite. Inoichi had already started to eat up and Midori was still making more pancakes, since she knew how much Ranma ate on an average. To Ranma, this was home. She had lived here ever since through some unknown forces she was cast into this world, and fortunately for her, she had found a home, and a family that cared for her as their own. Her introspect was broken by Inoichi's voice.

"So, today's the big day, isn't it, Ranma?" he said, with a smile, as he continued to eat.

"Yup, finally going to graduate from the academy. If anything, it's long overdue," Ranma said, with a confidence that seemed to border on arrogance. But of course, that was just the way Ranma was.

"Yes, with all the time you spend with Sandaime-sama, you're sure to pass the exam," Midori said, as she approached with more pancakes to satisfy Ranma's glut, "do us proud," she finished with a smile.

Ranma flashed back an equally glinting smile, and set back to work on the pancakes with reckless abandon.

"Thanks for the meal, Mom. I'll be back before you know it," she cried out, and left the house after picking up her ninja tool-bag. After she left, Midori turned to face Inoichi.

"Why exactly didn't Ranma try for the exams earlier, dear?" she asked the blond man. He hesitated for a moment, arranging his words.

"Well, when I met Hokage-sama the first time after Ranma signed up, he told me one thing. 'Let him enjoy his youth'. On that point, I agree with him. Ranma has the skills, but he still does not have the emotional strength to deal with the things a shinobi must deal with on the job." He sighed, as the memories of his own experiences assailed him. Inoichi was glad that time had dulled, if not fully healed most of the wounds. He gazed at her, and she reached her arms around him, as she understanding the wisdom behind Sarutobi's words.

--

Ranma reached the class early, and thus had a choice of where to sit. She caught a glimpse of blond hair, and made a bee line towards Naruto. Naruto happened to turn around, and called out when he saw Ranma.

"Hey! Hey! Ra- Ino, get over here. I saved a place for you!" he called out with his usual dose of loudness. Luckily he caught his slip, or it would've been a very sticky situation for both Ranma and him.

"Thanks. So, any idea who is going to be testing us today?"

"I heard that it'll be Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei, but I'm not sure," Naruto replied.

"Doesn't really matter, I guess. We're gonna pass for sure, nothing to worry," Ranma said, as she shifted to make herself comfortable.

They waited a few minutes, as the rest of the class started shuffling in. Among them, a pink haired girl and a black haired boy both made their way to where Naruto and Ranma were sitting, and made themselves comfortable as well.

"There's only one thing I can say about this," the black haired boy said, as he slid into his chair.

"Let me guess: "Finally", isn't it, Sasuke?" the pink haired girl said with a sarcastic smirk, confident that she had guessed right. Her reply came in the form of a not-overly exaggerated glare from the boy.

"One thing I can't wait for is this to be over! The Ramen stall is ca-a-a-lling m-e-e," Naruto said, in an annoying sing-song voice. He was met with the glare from Sakura, as well as two others. At the very least, he made a sheepish laugh to redirect their ire, as he scratched the back of his head.

"The Ramen shop is always calling you," Sasuke said, mirth in his voice. Naruto always had the ability to make stupid comments at any given time, defusing even the smallest amount of tension. Ranma and Sakura couldn't help but giggle at that remark.

"I wonder though. Why doesn't Ranma take the ninja test, or even join the academy? With all the taijutsu training we've done together, he'd definitely be able to pass, don't you think?" Sakura said, as Ranma started to sweat a little. She was glad her secret wasn't discovered yet, since there was no possibility she had left any incriminating evidence to her condition. The only other person who knew besides his parents and the Hokage would be Naruto, and she was quite sure he wouldn't have blabbed.

Before anyone could answer the question, an adult entered the room with a clipboard in his hand, and he started to write with a piece of chalk on the white board in the classroom. He was dressed in ninja attire, and had a forehead protector, as well as shoulder length hair. The class quietened down as he coughed into his hand to get their attention.

"Good morning class, as you already know, I'm Mizuki-sensei. Today, Iruka-sensei and I will be examining you on your basic ninja skills, and if you qualify to graduate from the academy. Your names will be called in alphabetical order according to your family name. When your name is called, come to classroom next door. That is all for now, thank you."

With that, he walked out the door, leaving the class to their own devices. The class came to a slight bustle, as the students started to claim space to practice their skills, as a final revision before the examination.

The thing about the final exams was that it was a very simple test. The exam topic was released to the students, albeit not directly, but rather through informants. This tested the students on basic reconnaissance, which was a very important thing for a shinobi. Of course, the students themselves were never aware of this, nor were they told about it. Thus, students who managed to garner the information were at an advantage, since they knew specifically which skill to practice.

Naruto, Ranma, Sasuke and Sakura were among the students who already knew what was to come, and thus decided to simply relax and hang out while waiting their turn. Sakura went first, followed by Sasuke. Naruto and Ranma had to wait for a quite a bit, since their surnames were right at the back of the list. Naruto went ahead shortly after, and on his way to the sequester for students who had completed the exam, flashed Ranma a vitory sign, along with a grin as wide as he had ever had. Ranma smiled back with a thumbs up.

Elsewhere, a boy with thick eyebrows and his bowl-cut haired master felt a chill run down their spines, causing both to topple from their upside down lotus meditation.

Ranma was finally called, and proceeded to the examination classroom. There, she saw, as advertised, Iruka-sensei and Mizuki-sensei were both sitting at a pair of desks at the front of the class.

"Why don't you come to the front, and start off by showing us a henge?" Iruka said, motioning for Ranma to come closer.

Ranma nodded, and stepped up. She clasped her hands together in the basic seal for molding chakra. As her energy rose, she shouted in her mind "Henge!"

In a burst of white smoke, she transformed herself into the likeness of Iruka, and stood ready for appraisal.

"Very good, Ino," Iruka said, calling Ranma by a shortened version of his adopted name. "Let's carry on with the rest of the test," he said, and ran her through the drills and skills required of a ninja.

--

After the exam, Ranma headed for the sequester to meet up with her friends. When she got there, it was to no one's surprise that the resident endorphin junkie jumped her with a loud shout.

"INO, INO, I PASSED!" the whiskered boy shouted at Ranma while holding her shoulders, causing Ranma to wince. Her other friends showed her a sympathetic look, knowing full well what she was experiencing, having experienced it themselves. "Lets have RAA-MEEEN!" he continued to shout as he restarted his victory dance.

"Alright, alright!" Ranma growled loudly, "we'll have ramen."

In that split second, Naruto's eyes glistened, and his mouth opened into an even bigger smile than it was before, and with a loud cheer, he sprung out the door, running to the exit.

"I think we better keep an eye on him before he decides to get us involved in any stupidity without our knowing," Sasuke started, as he walked to the door, beckoning both Ranma and Sakura to follow. With a nod, Ranma and Sakura both followed suite, and they left the academy building in search of the famed Ichiraku ramen stall, for a celebration feast, at least, as long as Naruto didn't finish everything the stall had before they got there.

--

Mizuki watched the children file out from the classroom, with the number one troublemaker Uzumaki Naruto in the lead. He was sorely surprised by the blond boy's abilities during the exam. He knew the boy was a slacker, and was therefore quite shocked to see him pass with the flying colors that he did.

'Damn it, gotta revise the damned plan,' he thought to himself as he walked down the corridor. 'Why couldn't the fox brat just screw up like he usually did?'

He continued to scheme as he walked off into the shadows, planning his next move.

--

The four children sat at the ramen stall as they ate, some more excitedly than others. As expected, the loudmouth in orange was dominating the race to see who could stuff themselves full of ramen, but the surprise to most was the sight of a red haired girl very nearly matching him pace for pace. Each had at least 4 bowls stacked at their side as they continued in their flurried movements. Next to them, a pink haired girl and a black haired boy both sat calmly, ignoring the chaos taking place beside them. Finally, the two eating machines stopped with a loud sigh each.

"Alright, I win!" Naruto shouted out, stretching both his arms out with the victory sign. Ranma on the other hand, was a little subdued, going over the "fight", if one could call it that, to see where she had made her mistake.

"Don't sweat it, Ino. I had a secret weapon this time," Naruto said, his victorious achievement still showing on his face in the shape of a large smile. His eyes were pretty much invisible when he did this, if anyone didn't know any better, he looked just like a fox.

"What was it?" Ranma asked, curious as to what would have given Naruto such an edge. The boy had led the match right after from the start, surprisingly. Right till the end, he kept accelerating, till he was a full bowl ahead of Ranma, which was nothing short of a miracle.

"I haven't eaten anything since yesterday night," Naruto explained, "not even my cup ramen at home. I gotta tell you, it was killing yesterday, I could barely keep myself away from the cupboard, but I used that meditation discipline stuff that Iruka-sensei was talking about, and managed to sleep before the hunger took total control," he said, his cheery smile still pasted on his face.

The other three all deadpanned at this. A single thought crossed their minds in unison. 'Naruto staying away from ramen? It's going to flood in Konoha today'

At this point, Sakura noticed the time on the clock in front of the shop. "Ah, it's getting late. I've got to get home before my mom starts worrying. Shall we, Ino?" she asked, facing Ranma.

"Alright," Ranma replied. "Don't forget, we've got training tomorrow. Meet you guys at the usual spot. See ya."

Naruto suddenly called out, "Hey Ino, aren't you forgetting something?"

Ranma closed her eyes and put her hand to her forehead. "Damn, I was hoping you'd forget." She then pulled out her purse, and paid for both her and Naruto's meal. Naruto smiled widely, while Ranma shot him a glare. Seeing it wasn't affecting him, she gave up, and headed off with Sakura.

--

Ranma had just reached her home after parting ways with Sakura, and headed towards the solace of her room and attached bath for a touch of warm water. 'After all, there was nothing more refreshing that a nice little gender change,' he thought with a wry smile. However, something was a little off. He had felt a needling sensation, like the early warnings of a major headache, ever since they had arrived at the ramen stall. It just stayed there, at the back of his mind, till he reached home, and suddenly disappeared. Putting it off as exam stress, he chuckled slightly as he lay on his bed.

"Ranma, Naruto's here to see you," he heard his mother's voice call.

It was quite a surprise, since he left the blond boy and his other practice buddy barely an hour ago, and Sakura half an hour after that. What could the Uzumaki heir possibly want? Curious, he went down to meet him.

"Thanks mom, we'll just talk outside for a bit," Ranma said to Midori, as he ushered Naruto outside for a little privacy. "Whats up man? Miss me already?" he asked coyly, watching for the usual priceless look on Naruto's face. When it didn't come, he began to worry.

He didn't need to ask any further though, as Naruto begun to explain. "I got a note a while after you left. Take a look," as he handed the note to Ranma. Ranma then scanned the contents and let out a gasp of shock.

_To the resident troublemaker,_

_I have your precious pink haired friend for company. If you would like her to stay comfortable, you will retrieve the Scroll of Seals from the Hokage's office, and deliver them to me in the forest north of the river's eye at 11 pm. If you tell anyone, then I definitely can't guarantee anything. Till then._

The letter was unsigned. But it was definitely trouble, regardless of who had sent it.

"Damn," Ranma spat, as he sat down on the steps in front of his house.

"I know," Naruto echoed, sighing anxiously, as he settled himself next to Ranma.

"This explains that damned feeling I was getting earlier," Ranma muttered, and then paused. "We have to see if it's true. We'll head to Sakura's place to check things out, and if it _is_ true, then we better think up a plan."

"We should get Sasuke, that's a must. He'd be a big help, since we have good coordination," Naruto followed up, his ninja training kicking in, strategic planning and all. He might've been anxious, but he knew there was no way they could save Sakura unless they calmed down and made a well thought out plan.

"One thing we have to consider," said Ranma, "are we really going to try and steal that scroll from Sarutobi-sensei's office?"

--

It was closing in on the specified hour, and the Hokage's office found itself with three unexpected guests. The guests pretty much made themselves at home in the darkness, going through drawers and shelves. It was a small miracle that they managed to do what they were, without alerting the sentries, attributed mainly to the groups genjutsu user.

"Oi Sasuke, any luck over there?" one of the shadows called out.

A silhouette of a head popped up from behind a stack of papers, "If you'd stop asking me every 5 minutes, I might actually have some," the now unnoticeably black haired boy replied. He then returned to checking through the papers.

"If we can at least see what the scroll looks like, then we might be able to come up with a copy to fool our 'friend'," Ranma muttered as he moved across the shelves.

"But I thought we really _were_ going to take the scroll with us?" Naruto asked, finding himself some what confused with the plan.

"If we take the scroll, then we can REALLY pin the bastard who took Sakura," Sasuke commented, the anger in his voice coming in tandem with his movements as he attacked the piles of scrolls on the table some what violently.

"Calm down man, we have more than enough trouble as it is without getting our asses handed to us by the jounin guard who are definitely going to pissed that we sneaked past them," Ranma said.

A pregnant silence filled the room for many minutes, as the three worked the room over. It was not to last however, and was broken with a cry of delight from the mouth of one soon to be dead blond. At least that was the image his partners held of him.

"I'VE FOUND IT! I'VE FOU-MMmmm!" Naruto shouted, only to have his air supply cut off by Sasuke.

"Shut up, teme!" he whispered angrily, as the alarms started blaring in the vicinity of the room.

"Let's get out of here!" Ranma told them, and grabbed the Scroll of Seals from Naruto and ushered them out through the secret entrance they used to enter. Within seconds there was no trace of them ever being in the room, and none but the Hokage himself would know what to look for, as he was among the rare few that knew of that entrance.

--

The stalker caught sight of his prey. The blond boy sure was easy to manipulate. Sure, it was hard getting the girl, she put up a tough fight. Never seemed to display that strength during class, but she had it, and he paid the price for his lack of foreknowing. He silently rubbed at his bruised right cheek. He had to hand it to her, she had one nasty left hook.

Back to the boy, he was sitting by himself in the middle of the clearing, just as instructed. It was almost too easy. The scroll was in the boy's hand, as he hugged it to himself. The poor fox brat must really be lonely to be finding himself so friendly with an inanimate scroll. He chuckled inwardly at his joke, and prepared to leap down and claim his prize and revenge.

--

Naruto sat in the clearing, acting out his part to the tee. He didn't need to use his eyes to know that his comrades were in their respective positions, Sasuke somewhere above him to the back, to ease his job of providing cover fire. Ranma was moving around the immediate vicinity of the meeting area, in his invisibility technique. It was the perfect technique for this situation, to find Sakura without alerting their aggressor.

Another thing in their favour was that since Naruto's loud shout had blown their cover while getting the scroll, a great many ninja were searching for the intruders. If everything went according to plan, they would have the bastard right where they wanted him. And so, he sat, as his critical role demanded, and waited.

Suddenly, a figure appeared at the other end of the clearing. And it spoke.

"So you're good for something after all, eh brat?" the myterious figure boomed in a loud male voice. 'So it was a bastard, after all,' Naruto thought to himself as he tensed for the coming conflict.

The man wore a mask which hid his face, but his hair was long, most of it reaching his shoulder. "Hand over the scroll, boy!" he ordered.

Naruto tried to make out the features of the silhouette, in the hopes of figuring out the identity of the idiot who tried to hurt his friend. His above normal night vision came to the forefront, allowing him a better picture of the aggressor. He noted the hair, and the eyes. It looked so familiar that he screamed internally at the frustration of having the answer just at the corner of his mind. He failed to notice the other shinobi's look as his eyes glowed slightly as well as became slitted while he 'activated' his night vision. He was shaken from his thoughts as the masked shinobi cried out once more.

"Hand it over now, you brat!" he yelled, his patience drawing thin.

All of a sudden, a kunai cut through the air, landing in the exact mid point of the clearing between Naruto and the other ninja. Naruto was the first to notice the exploding tag hooked onto the kunai, and dove backwards into the bushes while shouting to Sasuke, leaving their enemy in the clearing stunned at the turn of events. The precious moments he spent standing there nearly cost him the fight. The tag ignited, and sheared off a pretty big amount of trees at the edges of the clearing. In retrospect, they would later realize that it would make it a good place to train.

--

The shock wave that coursed through the forest, followed by its sonic boom, was sure to have alerted the search parties that were hunting the unidentified intruders who broke into the Hokage's office. It would later be said that the explosion rocked the entire village, but such is the exaggeration that comes from rumours and gossip, as well as half truths and a very active imagination. But that is a story for another time.

--

The masked ninja was thrown back from the clearing, at least 15 feet, and was now the unmasked ninja, also known as Mizuki, a chuunin instructor from the ninja academy. Naruto's enhanced night vision told him at least this much, and he charged in with righteous fury, his version of reparation towards the crime of his former teacher. Sasuke was right on his tail as he engaged their senior ninja. By this time however, Mizuki had already shaken the cobwebs from his head, and stood his ground in a ready stance.

"Ourrya!" Naruto shouted as he drove his right fist towards Mizuki's face, his entire body airborne for a second. It took all that Mizuki had, but he blocked the fist, and tried to counter and trip Naruto with a kick to his just-about-to-land shin. Naruto knew what was about to happen, and tried his best to counter his forward momentum.

It was Sasuke who came to his rescue. The Uchiha heir had just a split second earlier thrown a single kunai with a wire towards the left side of Naruto's left foot. Using a shuriken, he adjusted the trajectory of the kunai just after it passed Naruto's foot, causing the wire to wrap around the blond boy's ankle. Then, he tugged as hard as he could, while jumping upwards, making Naruto look like an animal caught in a rope snare.

Missing his target, since it evacuated its position, Mizuki found himself unbalanced, as his foot kept on its war path, trying in vain to decimate a nonexistent target. Sasuke capitalized on this, and threw several shuriken with wires attached. It was the build up to a family favourite. Even before the shuriken contacted with the ground, surrounding Mizuki, he started to form the seals that he would require for the technique to successfully utilize his chakra and manifest the flames required.

In his mind, he said the words, almost as a reflex action.

"Katon. Ryuuka no Jutsu!"

The flames flew along the wire, heading towards its end. Mizuki noted the fire as soon as it escaped the Uchiha boy's mouth, as it lit up the surroundings. Immediately pulling out a kunai, he grasped for the wires, as he could not see the black wires among the black background that was the night time forest. As the flames drew closer, the wires shone, and in his desperation, he grabbed them, paying no heed to the fact that Sasuke had used a sharper, thinner variant of the one he used to snare Naruto earlier, as the wire lacerated his palm. He then worked his kunai, splitting the wire, and threw them aside.

But he was too late, as the flames had just gone past that point, and began to engulf him. He shrieked like a banshee, wailing to convey the pain that overwhelmed his body. He dropped and rolled to put out the flames, and was quite lucky, as the somewhat damp forest floor helped in his efforts. As he stood up seconds later, he scanned the tree tops for his two opponents, but saw no trace of them. He was a second too late, as he felt a sharp piercing pain at his left thigh. He looked behind to see Naruto standing there, still in the position of having thrown his kunai. He had a smirk on his face, which was the last thing Mizuki saw as he collapsed.

"Alright! Score one for Uzumaki!" he said as he panted away. Sasuke merely looked at him.

"You do realize that I saved your ass, don't you?" he asked, a smirk appearing on his face, knowing he had hit that one button that Naruto abhorred.

"You just had to ruin my moment of glory, didn't you, Sasuke-teme?"

"Oi, idiots. A little help would be appreciated here," a new voice entered the conversation, a little strained, "this girl's heavier than I thought."

"Hey, don't insult Sakura-chan," Naruto scolded Ranma. Ranma laughed at the boy, as he laid Sakura onto the forest floor. He then knelled down in front of her, and put both his hands against his chest in an 'X' formation, as he yelled "Kai!", pushing some of his energy into Sakura's unbalanced chakra flow.

The events that followed would forever be etched in Ranma's mind, as a valuable lesson in chakra control, as well as joke material for his closest friends. Sakura's eyes burst wide open and instinctively she pulled her hand into a sloppy, but powerful punch, that rocked Ranma's jaw as he fell flat on his behind. Sasuke and Naruto were also shocked at this turn of events. Sakura was the most confused, however, as she had absolutely no idea what was transpiring.

She shook her head, trying to relieve the herself of the slight dizziness, and beheld the sight before her.

"Where'd that rat go!" she shouted at her friends.

Naruto was the only one brave enough to face the girl's question, as both Ranma, who had just experienced her misplaced ire, and Sasuke, who knew Sakura well enough, decided to take a few steps back.

"What rat, Sakura-chan?"

"The one I was fighting with for my life!"

"Sakura-chan, you were trapped in a genjutsu. Ranma just freed you of it, but I think the cancellation technique had too much chakra in it." Every once in a while, Naruto rocked the foundations of the known universe by revealing some intelligence outside of the hallowed, but underrated field of academics known as ramen. "Genjustsu cancellation has to be smooth, so that the victim knows that they were in a genjutsu, and is able to relax once they are out."

"Okay, I think Sakura hit me harder than I thought. Only in my dreams is Naruto ever this smart," Ranma said to Sasuke, as the other boy laughed.

"Dammit, do you guys really think that all I do is eat ramen?" Naruto scolded his friends, but it only caused them to laugh louder.

Before anyone could make a reply, a total of six figures appeared at the edge of the clearing closest to the village. Under the moonlight, you could clearly see the white porcelain masks they wore shine. The front most figure made a gesture, and two of the followers made their way to Mizuki's body. The other four made their way to the children.

"Ah, I see we have found our thieves. Hokage-sama had a feeling it was you," the nameless leader said, as he spotted the Scroll of Seals, lying not too far from Ranma.

"We have a good reason for that, most of it having to do with that man," Sasuke replied coolly, pointing towards Mizuki's prone position.

"Yes, well, let's leave that to the Elders to decide. Follow me," he said, signaling his team to complete their task, as he, along with the four academy graduates, headed towards the crime scene they had left not too long ago.

--

A great many things were running through the minds of the four youngsters as they stood before the great Third Hokage of the Hidden Village of Leaf. It seemed that when he put his mind to it, the "professor" could be quite the menacing ninja, despite his age. And tonight, they were privy to see a side of him that very few saw, and many more hoped never to see. It was a terrifying affair.

At least, to three of the four attendees it was. Nothing seemed to faze the bright blond boy called Uzumaki Naruto.

"Oi Jiichan, everything's fine, right? We got the scroll, we got Sakura, that's all that counts, right?" he said brazenly. The others feared for their friend.

"Naruto, pipe down. If you don't stop now, you're going to get us all killed. Not like we care if you get killed, but..." Sakura whispered to the boy, mumbling off in the end, not wanting to direct the ire of the Hokage towards herself.

There was a brief silence before it was finally broken by Sarutobi himself.

"While everything turned out nicely in the end, what the four of you did today was very, very irresponsible. Many things could have gone wrong in the scenario, you could have been fighting a more powerful opponent, _yes_ Naruto, more powerful people do exist, you know," he said in response to Naruto's eye roll.

"Let there not be a 'next time'. You are dismissed for now, but I expect a proper debriefing tomorrow, as a punishment for your irresponsibility. Be there at 6 AM sharp, or face D rank missions for an indefinite period of time which will be set later."

He smirked as a collective groan escaped the four adolescents before him, before they slowly filed out of the room.

"Ranma, please stay back, there is something I wish to discuss with you," Sarutobi said in a kinder voice than he had earlier, which seemed to perk not just Ranma's interest, but also the curiosity of his friends. They continued to shuffle out, but shot him a look that meant that he would be explaining himself later.

'Dammit, more work for me,' Ranma thought to himself with a smirk, knowing that his friends would want a debriefing of their own regarding whatever was to be discussed. As the massive wooden doors closed behind Sasuke, who was the last one out, Sarutobi motioned for Ranma to sit.

* * *

A/N: Okay, now I'm going to die. Apologies for the super late post, as I finally found the drive to finish this. I promise not to take as long with the next one since it's a cliff hanger, as I value my life. :P 

Well, let me know if anything is screwy or comes to mind. By the way, if anyone has any theories on chakra/ki differences and stuff, related to both series' , please let me know as well, cause I'm confusing myself at the moment at times. It does have a little to do with the next chapter, and Ranma's future in the Narutoverse ;)


	6. Chapter 4

Lost in Infinity

A Ranma 1/2 - Naruto Crossover  
Chapter 4 (No more stupid names for chapters)

Author's notes at the end of the chapter.

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto, and Ranma belongs to Takahashi. So there.

* * *

Ranma took his position in the comfortable mahogany chair that faced Sarutobi's desk. The old man gave him a once over, and sat down as well. He then sighed deeply, once again invoking Ranma's ever growing curiosity. Still, from past experiences, Ranma knew that it would not do to rush the Hokage, especially when his eyes twinkled mischievously. A patron of the art of drama as he was, Sarutobi let the silence permeate the air before beginning his explanation. 

"Ranma, I'm sure you know that I know about your curse, yes?" he started not so subtly. The warning klaxons started to blare in the pig-tailed youth's mind, since every time Sarutobi-sensei mentioned his curse, bad things happened. Strange experiments involving water and chakra, resulting in the usual joke at his expense, and twisted humour (in Ranma's opinion, anyway) on the old man's end, reminded him to be cautious in his dealings regarding his curse.

'What are you up to _this _time, old man?' he thought to himself, merely nodding to show his positive answer to the question. He did give the older man a questioning glance, but knew that it would ultimately be revealed. Sarutobi-sensei really couldn't keep things like jokes a secret for long. The Hokage had a penchant for jokes, much like himself and Naruto, but some how had a compulsion to see the end result, usually with the blame openly pointing to himself. Ranma couldn't help but smile a bit at that thought.

"Well, one thing I'm sure this will be is good news," Sarutobi continued. "Actually, I had reached a breakthrough just about two months ago, but was saving this for a special occasion."

"Ranma, I think I have a _cure _for your curse."

The words rang through the corridors and alleys in Ranma's mind with the resounding tone of a large cathedral bell. He was slack jawed and his eyes were wide in shock at the revelation those words brought. He was _free_! FREE! Free from the curse of cold water finding him at the most inopportune moments, free from the gender bending moments and close scrapes that would have embarrassed him for the rest of his life. FREE!

Sarutobi leaned back into his chair with a look of amusement on his wrinkled face. He smiled as he watched the emotions play on the boy's face, remembering his own childhood, and much of the happiness and innocence that was all but lost now. He shook himself from those thoughts, realizing their discontinuity with the events transpiring before him.

"Now, if you'll stick your tongue back in your mouth and stop drooling on my floor, I will continue my explanation."

Ranma immediately sat ramrod straight, his eyes focusing completely on the Hokage before him, as if awaiting an oracle from a deity from on high.

"Before you jump to any conclusions, which I'm sure you have, this isn't a super cure that will remove the curse, rather something to contain it. The magic binding the curse to you is far stronger than anything I've ever encountered, and I think that perhaps what I've devised is perhaps the best I that I can do, without any samples of the water directly from the source of your curse itself."

Ranma felt a bit let down, but still, anything was better than the uncontrolled chaos that currently filled his life because of the curse. He nodded his ascent once again, and Sarutobi continued.

"The method is basically a Curse Seal. We'll bind the magics of the curse to a chakra seal that will be placed upon your body. The seal will have to manifest itself physically some how when activated, but we'll get to that later, as I already have some ideas."

That in itself was reason enough for Ranma to want to flee the room.

"The seal will use your chakra to dispel the curse when the transformation requirements are met. For example, if the seal is active, when the curse is activated, the seal will draw some chakra from you, and prevent the curse from working, effectively containing it, sealing it. Following so far?" he asked the boy, and upon receiving a nod, continued.

"Another thing that I had to incorporate was the safety catch, so to speak. The seal is a three part seal, which makes it a little tricky. The safety catch is there to make sure that the seal doesn't drain your chakra when it is near depletion. When your chakra levels are low, it will deactivate itself, instead of continuing to drain your chakra and energy, which would cause you to die." he said nonchalantly. Ranma was very grateful that the man had thought to put that feature into it, since he didn't want to die of something as lame as chakra loss.

"The safety catch is one part, the curse containment is part two, and the chakra moulding system is part three. One last thing, is that you can activate or deactivate the seal, as well as trigger the curse if you wish using the correct hand seal combination."

The weight of this new discovery sat heavily upon Ranma's shoulders. It wasn't everyday that someone came up to you, and said "here buddy, I've got a cure for your sufferings." Of course, it wasn't as if the curse was really a huge suffering. _'I suppose I've got it pretty lucky since I got the curse when I was young,' _he thought. He had plenty of time to get used to his curse, and even now, it helped him all the time. Whether it was to escape prankees (people who had been pranked), or even get extra helpings of ramen and ice cream, his curse was very much a part of him now.

Still, the control that this solution would give him was something he was looking forward to.

"Sensei, when can you give me the seal?" he asked, as a horse looking at the carrot dangling right in front of it.

"Tomorrow, 6 AM. Be at my office and we will begin."

"But isn't there a debriefing tomorrow?" Ranma asked, his curiosity piqued once more, especially since Sarutobi had a twinkle in his eye.

"The truth is that there is no briefing," he explained, much to Ranma's dismay as the boy pieced the clues together, coming to a conclusion that would require a whole lot of effort on his part, "and I felt that it was only fair that the ring leader of the entire fiasco should be the one to be punished the most," he said as he smiled at the boy, almost laughing at both the look on his face and the thought of the task ahead of him.

"You are to find your accomplices and inform them of the change in plans. Dismissed."

Ranma bolted out the door, while promising his teacher pain for the situation he was in. It was already close to 1 AM, so he ran, his work cut out for him.

--

Ranma dropped on the soft, plush purple couch that secured its place in the Hokage's office. He sighed as his muscles groaned of the torture they had been inflicted with. At the very least, the couch provided some comfort.

After running out the door, he had a whole bag of trouble handed to him in his endeavour to inform his friends of the change in plans by the devil Hokage. He figured it was payback for all the pranks he and Naruto hatched and executed against the village. First and foremost, Sakura was a problem in herself. The girl loved her beauty sleep, and hated to be woken up for no reason. However, he knew it had to be done, else she turn up at the specified time and either learn his secret, or worse yet, have Sarutobi-sensei tell her some lie that it was Ranma's fault that there was no meeting. While the former only meant that his friend would learn of his curse and possibly start teasing him, he knew that Sarutobi-sensei was more prone to telling her a lie, and have her exact her own revenge on him for being the reason that she would have to wake up early without reason. It was a lose-lose situation.

After receiving a beating that would make some grown men cringe, he then proceeded to find his next target. Sasuke was a lot easier to deal with, since he preferred to know before hand, rather than after, and once he had been informed, went back to bed. It was, however, getting _into_ the house that was a problem, due to the various traps set up in the near-abandoned Uchiha complex. Getting out was just as fun.

Last on his list was Naruto. Here was where all the time made up for with Sasuke was lost. It was near impossible to wake the boy up. After trying and failing for half an hour, Ranma decided to just leave a note for him. It was not like the boy would wake up anyway, so why bother, he thought to himself with a smirk. He then proceeded to head home to get what little sleep he could before the "ritual". Since it was only 3 AM, he could have gotten at least 2 hours of sleep, counting in time for other things like his morning shower and breakfast. It was not to be, however.

Upon reaching the Yamanaka abode, he was assailed by his parents, who demanded an explanation, and he had to retell the entire tale from start to end, from the note to his whereabouts for the past few hours. He sighed as he ended his tale, looking at the clock and realizing that he would not be able to get much sleep after all. It was at 4 AM that the inquisition was completed, and Ranma informed his parents of what the Hokage had told him. Suffice to say that they shared his joy at the news, and since it was late, he decided to just head to the Hokage's office and rest there.

And that was how he came to find himself in his current position, eyes half closed, lying on Sarutobi-sensei's couch, easing into the plush material, feeling it caress his skin. It was heavenly compared to the running about he had to endure. His mind completed its final lap and he was dead as stone, his snoring filling the room with a rather crispy rattling noise

--

It felt like barely a minute that he had found his centre, when the footsteps had broken his rest as his mind jumped into high gear. This in itself was a defence reaction built upon countless ambushes by his accomplice in crime, the blond half of his mini terrorist group. Not only did they prank the rest of the village in with a ferocity rarely seen anywhere in the world, they practised their pranking skills on each other, one world class prankster to another.

As he sat upright in the second, his eyes took in the sight before him. The Sandaime Hokage stood before him, in his full-dress battle gear.

"Are you ready, Ranma-kun?" the Hokage asked the boy before him.

Ranma nodded his ascent, not in full control of his brain's higher functions at the moment. He wordlessly followed Sarutobi into a smaller adjoining room, when his eyes finally opened, as wide as they possibly could.

He had heard of seal constructs before, while at the academy, but what lay before him was far from any regular seal constructs he had ever seen. Sensing Ranma's shock, Sarutobi decided to illuminate his young pupil.

"The reason behind such a complex construct is quite simple, deshi. The magic of your curse is very powerful, and I'm not willing to have the backlash destroy the tower," he said with a smile.

"I'll remind you one last time, that many things could possibly go wrong. Are you sure you want to continue?" he asked Ranma. The pigtailed boy nodded, and stepped into the centre of the seal construct, and sat cross-legged.

"Just relax, and concentrate on your chakra. That will help my focussing."

"Hai, sensei."

Sarutobi began to form the seals that would create the 3-part seal for Ranma's curse. It was a very complicated jutsu, especially since the volatile magic of Jusenkyo was thrown in the mix. It was something that was completely out of this world for Sarutobi, and pretty much any ninja that would ever walk the face of the world they inhabited in this particular universe. Combining its uniqueness along with the fact that it contained very powerful magic, it was nothing short of a miracle that the Sandaime Hokage had managed to devise a method to contain it. Then again, he _was_known as the "Professor".

A low humming noise started to build up within the walls of the room, and the seal construct started to glow with energy, a bluish green hue filling the room. Ranma felt the pull on his chakra, and concentrated on holding it in, his brows creasing. Close to ten minutes had passed and Sarutobi still hadn't stopped forming the seals, even though he was going through them at an average speed. All of a sudden, his eyes flashed open, as he stopped his hands in the position of the monkey seal.

"Sanbun, Jubaku no fuuin!"

His shout was syncopated by a rippling sensation in the air, which suddenly erupted into a massive sonic boom, against the walls of the room. Sarutobi struggled to maintain his footing, but managed to hold himself there, continuing to pour his chakra into the construct.

Ranma felt a tingling sensation build up on his chest, which slowly morphed to become _her_ chest, then _his_ again. The transformation which was usually painless with water was now excruciatingly painful. He fought to scream as even his voice went from his high alto to a soprano, back and forth, changing once, then twice, numerous times. As the pain began to wear off and subside, his left arm felt like it was on fire.

The wind dropped, just as Sarutobi fell to his knees, breathing hard, taking in as much air as his lungs could to satiate his body. Ranma lay face forward, his legs a tangled mess. The Hokage of Konoha slowly stood to his feet, and walked towards the boy's prone form. He lifted him up, and brought him back to the comfortable couch of his office, and proceeded to pour himself a cup of tea while he waited for the pig-tailed youth to awaken. His patience was rewarded ten minutes later, when the body on the couch stirred, and a groan escaped Ranma's lips, his pain evident in his voice.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, deshi," Sarutobi said, with a soft smile.

"Maybe I don't want to be here, old man.." the boy replied, as he clutched his pounding head.

"Sit up, and I'll examine you," the Hokage started, "and have a cup of tea, it'll dull the pain."

Ranma sat up slowly, and took the proffered tea with a mumbled thanks. Sarutobi began to concentrate his chakra into his eyes, getting a feel for Ranma's chakra pattern. His eyes rested on Ranma's left arm, when he saw something that didn't even require chakra enhanced vision to see.

"I had a feeling it would materialize physically."

"What would materialize?" Ranma asked, curious as to the outcome of the sealing.

"Take a look at your arm, deshi."

Ranma looked at his right arm, and seeing nothing, looked back at his sensei's face in question.

"Your other arm," Sarutobi said, as he held his forehead in his hand, sighing.

Ranma's eyes tracked across his right arm, pausing just as he noticed something which was not there the last time he took a shower.

"Wow, that's some cool looking tattoo!" the boy exclaimed, much to the amusement of the village leader. Upon his inspection he found a jet black tattoo, detailing a very uniquely designed line forming a circle, the line's pattern akin to that of the massive chakra constructs he had seen earlier. Inside the circle was the kanji for female.

"Why is the kanji showing female, sensei?"

Sarutobi was silent for a moment, deep in thought.

"I think it has to do with your curse, deshi. Currently you are in your male form, so it would make sense that your female form is held in check. Why don't you try changing, and see what happens?" Sarutobi suggested.

Ranma grabbed for the pot of water next to the tea pot, knowing the Hokage's habit of keeping both cool and hot water in his office. He poured a small amount of the water over his head, but the odd thing was, there was no tingling sensation. Ranma's eyes were wide, as he felt a warm feeling over the area where the tattoo was, the circle around the kanji character turning reddish.

He faced Sarutobi with his eyes wide and his mouth gaping, unable to express in words his shock. As much as he knew that this was the intended effect, it was still a total shock to the system that what he had once taken for granted was now no more, or at least temporarily. Sarutobi grinned at him, before speaking.

"Since that has been taken care of, you will need to learn how to control the seal, to switch between your gender forms. You will also need to know how to turn the seal off, in case you might want to do that."

"I also noticed," he continued, "that you look a bit dazed, aside from your surprise. That's probably because your body does not have a lot of chakra, and the seal has taken a lot of it to prevent the curse from activating and changing your body. I will also have to show you some chakra training techniques so that you can build up your reserves."

Ranma nodded, seeing that he felt it and knew what had to be done.

"We'll start now, so that we can finish in time for you to get to class for today. The team selection process will be proceeding today, so you'll definitely need to be there," Sarutobi said, as Ranma noted a frightening glint in his sensei's eyes. He sighed in defeat, resigning himself to what he knew would be a morning full of torture, followed by a tormenting afternoon at class.

Sarutobi patted his charge on the back as both of them retreated to the forest via the secret access way, Sarutobi and Ranma both carrying several scrolls with them as they left.

--

Ranma entered the classroom, silently trudging across the floor. She headed directly towards her friends once she spotted them, paying no heed to the Sasuke fan girls as she took her place next to him, avoiding the fighting girls. Sasuke sighed to himself, glad to be safe from the immediate threat since Naruto was sitting on his other side, and was now focusing on the topic at hand, which would be the team selections. Sakura found herself next to Ranma, as all the other girls glared at the non-combatants that stole their way next to their beloved Sasuke-kun.

The sight of a tired and bogged down Ranma, however, kept pulling at him from his peripheral vision. Ranma literally had bags under her eyes, and was in the worst shape he had ever seen her, save for how she would be after some of their nightly training sessions.

"What happened to you? You look like Naruto would if he didn't get his daily dose of ramen," he joked, wondering what kind of response he would get from the red haired girl, since her responses often mirrored her mood. It was to his relief once again that morning, that she chuckled lightly.

"The old man went nuts, and decided to torture me for a bit this morning."

Sasuke was about to ask, before she continued, "He finally came up with something to help me with my _little_ problem," he picked out the emphasis she placed on the word, and his eyes widened as he realised what this now meant. "I'll explain it later, during practice."

They stopped talking once the instructor, Umino Iruka stepped in. The pony-tailed man explained to the class, once he had their attention, that they would be split up into groups of three based on their individual skill, as well as temperament towards their teammates. He then proceeded to call out the names of the students according to their groups, as well as the designated meeting place set by their Jounin teacher-to-be.

"Team 7 will consist of Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto," to which there was a soft 'Yahoo!', followed by a dull thud, "and Uchiha Sasuke." This was the part that got the attention of most of the girls in the class, save for a few. Sasuke looked relieved, since he knew that Sakura was not _that_ infatuated with him, not with her emotions being divided between him and Ranma, and Naruto was a good teammate as well. Ranma, on the other hand, was a little disappointed, but figured that things would play out according to plan anyways.

After all, her parents, or at least her father, had been raving on about the Ino-Shika-Chou trio since forever, it was bound the happen. Not to mention that the old monkey also had a _'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' _when it came to assembling teams.

"Team 10, Yamanaka Inozumi, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Chouji." Ranma's eyes rested upon her teammates, noticing Shikamaru rambling on once again of 'how troublesome' things were. She rolled her eyes, and listened as Iruka continued, "your Jounin-sensei will be Sarutobi Asuma, and he has requested that you meet him at Training Field 7. You may leave now," he said.

Ranma looked at both Shikamaru and Chouji, and nodded. She mouthed to Sasuke to meet up later that night for training, and together, the three of them left the classroom, as Iruka continued to call out names. Once he was done, he put down his clipboard, and sat on at his desk, before noticing that there were three students still in the classroom, looking at him expectingly. At least, one of them was.

"Sensei, you didn't tell us who _our_ Jounin-sensei was, or where to meet him," Sakura stated, leaving the question open.

Iruka stared at his clipboard, before sighing and rubbing his temples. "Sorry about that, Sakura-chan. Your sensei will be Hatake Kakashi. As for where to meet him, he didn't leave any instructions, so I think you should wait here." He shuffled about his drawer, before finding his target, a small rectangular object. He then threw it towards Sasuke, who caught it deftly.

"Better make yourselves comfortable, you're probably going to be in for a _very_ long wait," he said, answering their questioning gazes, as he stepped out of the classroom, leaving three very bewildered children.

--

Ranma walked along the corridor with her team mates, as Chouji kept on muching on a bag of chips. Shikamaru was the first to break the silence.

"Guess we should have seen this coming, ne?" Ranma smirked.

"Yeah, we should. It's not that bad, is it? If there is one thing, and _only_ one thing that Sarutobi-sensei gets right, its usually his team selections." Shikamaru nodded his agreement, knowing that his friends were likely the most compatible teammates he could find for himself, at least in terms of abilities.

After all, their parents had worked together for years as a team, their various skills and techniques, which they consequently passed down, being quite a match. While they were not their parents, they definitely had some coherency, and generally got along with each other. The trust that they had formed was quite an interesting dynamic, as Chouji even shared his food with them, on occasion, which was something no one else in the village could boast about, save for the rest of the Akimichi family.

"Well, let's get moving. The faster we finish, the faster we can head to the restaurant," Chouji commented. His friends rolled their eyes, and in not much more than a flash of a movement, they jumped out the next open window that they found, and rushed off to meet with their new sensei.

--

Training Field 7 was not too far off from the academy, and so they reached there in record time, only to find that there was no one there. Shikamaru sighed and found himself a tree stump to sit upon, while Chouji felt that the ground was more comfortable. Ranma on the other hand, being the training buff that she was, decided to get some extra work done, and was running through a tree jumping exercise she had developed.

This ensued for nearly ten minutes, when all of a sudden a puff of smoke appeared next to Shikamaru and his stump. Shikamaru, however, immediately jumped into battle mode, and dashed forward, his hand reaching into his shuriken holster. Ranma jumped off the last tree in the direction of the mysterious smoke cloud, gaining momentum, while rushing through seals with her hands. Chouji ran towards Shikamaru, to provide some cover for his friend.

It was a tense moment, as both Ranma and Shikamaru shouted their techniques in their minds, not requiring the some what archaic concept of shouting it out loud, which tended to help newly formed teams to work together.

"Kagemane no jutsu!"

"Katon! Goukyaku no jutsu!"

In less than a second, both techniques reached their target smoke cloud, intending to take out whoever it was that decided to shake them up. The fireball cause the smoke to clear, and to the astonishment of both ninjas, there was no one there. Shikamaru instantly released his technique when he noticed it, but both he and Chouji were too late.

A large man wearing a jounin's vest was standing behind them, a heavy hand on either one's shoulder. Ranma landed on the ground less than 10 feet away from them. The bearded man laughed a bit, before explaining himself to the three ninjas in training.

"Nice to meet the three of you. I'm Sarutobi Asuma," he said with a grin. The shift in stance of his new students was barely visible, but he noticed their relaxed state. He gestured them to sit down, and he found himself a tree stump.

"Sorry to have startled you," he started, grinning, while rubbing the back of his head, to the eye rolls of his students, "but I'm quite glad that I did. I've already got an idea of your abilities, and this will help me figure out what and how to teach you."

After a short discussion about their likes, dislikes, as well as some basic ice breaking, Ranma found herself with a slightly embarrassing predicament. It was not without great effort that she managed to inform her new comrades in arms of her special condition.

"Sensei, there is something that I need to mention, that is classified information within the village," she started, and following Asuma's knowing nod, since he had been briefed on the subject before hand, she set off, "I have a special condition, not unlike a bloodline limit. Only that it isn't." Her teammates' curiosity was piqued, she could tell from their faces.

"Allow me to demonstrate," and with that she started off the seal sequence that would disengage the Curse Sealer that Sarutobi-sensei had developed. As she reached the final seal, she opened her eyes, and promptly took the hip flask that she carried with her. It was a special flask with two separate containers, one for cold water, and another for hot.

"My current body is considered my cursed form, as I am actually a boy." With that, she upended the flask, and sufficiently warm water poured out of it, triggering the transformation. The gasps of amazements from Chouji and Shikamaru cause Ranma to smirk a little. Asuma took in the sight of his now male charge, noticing his muscle build, noting areas to work on later.

"Now that the heavy business has been taken care of," he said, after clearing his throat to get the attention of his still open-jawed students, "we will be starting off on some basic D-rank and C-rank missions, as I'm not really into the bell test, and I already have the information I need," he said without elaborating, leaving his students slightly confused. Nonetheless, he proceeded on, "We will meet back in this clearing after breakfast tomorrow to start our work, as well as your pay," this statement getting some gleaming smiles. "Thats all, dismissed."

With that, he stood up, and with a slight puff of smoke, he was gone.

"That was rather anti climactic," Ranma muttered. "So, what now?"

"Well, I suppose we're done for the day. I'm glad, we don't have to waste time learning about each other and all that, since we're already 'family', as our parents keep professing," Shikamaru said, lying back down on the grass.

"Wow, I'm surprised you took the effort to come up with a whole sentence," Chouji chuckled, "must be imagining things since I'm hungry." His slightly wild grin showed his very white, very strong teeth. "Let's head out for some barbecue!"

Ranma couldn't help but laugh at that statement. It was thoroughly expected from Chouji.

"Sorry guys, I've got some training lined up for tonight. Care to join?" he flashed them a grin, knowing what they would say, or rather do. The groan came right on time. "Alright, I got you. I'll see ya tomorrow, bright and early." He stepped up, and started in a light jog towards the Uchiha estate, laughing slightly at the second groan, seeing they would have to be early tomorrow. When a ninja said, after breakfast, he didn't mean breakfast time for normal people. He meant 'at the crack of dawn'.

--

After a couple of runs at the obstacle course he and the others had whipped up, Naruto sat down on the grass, panting quite loudly. There were few who could completely conquer the famed Uchiha Groundbeater even in its hay day, and although he was proud that he could boast that he could survive it, even with their extended modifications, it still tired him out like nothing else did. Except maybe staying away from ramen for a week. Naruto shuddered. That was a _really_ scary thought.

Ranma and Sasuke were winding down slowly, running through some of the kata that Ranma had thought them. The blond boy was glad that he had met Ranma. Not only was the other blue-eyed boy a great friend, but the amount of taijutsu he knew was incredible. The Art of Anything-Goes that he offered them was vastly superior to the standard Konoha taijutsu, not withstanding some of the specialized styles. It was enough to say that they were among the top of their class. Naruto was pulled out of his musing as his companions for the evening finally ended the wind down session, and decided to sit next to him, after each grabbing a swig of water from their containers.

"We've still got a long way to go before we can beat that eyebrows fella," Ranma sighed.

"That guy is nuts! Nuts I tell you!" Naruto exclaimed, all traces of his previous fatigue now gone.

"This coming from the resident ramen addict," Sasuke added. Naruto glared at him as his friends laughed.

"Well, I better get going. It's getting close to dinner time, and you know how my parents get," Ranma said, as he got up and began to put his clothes into his bag.

"Yeah, we've got some meeting with the pirate ninja tomorrow, early," Naruto said with a groan. Sasuke's following sigh showed his agreement with his teammate.

"Okay then, have fun!" Ranma shouted with a wink, as he sped home.

* * *

Author's Notes : I'm so terribly sorry for the super delay in getting this out. I just have no drive to actually write out the story as it is in my head. I've got a rough idea, but it's just the writing that's the problem. I'll try, but I can't promise anything, and I felt that I should at least post this chapter up, as unhappy about it as I am. 


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